Re: [OT] Harassment of open source developer !
On Thu, 5 Jul 2001, der.hans wrote:
> Am 05. Jul, 2001 schwäzte Jan Ulrich Hasecke so:
>
> > "Eric G. Miller" <egm2@jps.net> writes:
> >
> > > Protest all you like, but I think Adobe probably has a valid claim of
> > > trademark infringement.
> >
> > Today KIllustrator, tomorrow M$ sues KWord and KOffice. Every project
> > can be sued this way, it only a question of ill fantasy. In the end
> > you can only use numbers for your projects.
> >
> > If we do not defend our rights, who should? The american way of buying
> > words out of our languages must be stopped. So I think it is good to
> > protest.
>
> Actually, this appears to be the German way in this case :). First it's
> in .de. Second, notice that it's a German word, not an English word, e.g.
> Illustrator vs. illustrator. He should change it to Killustrator and see if
> the .us portion of Adobe comes after him ;-).
>
> The real problem isn't that it's a normal word being used, but that it
> appears to be a brand X version of a name brand. It's the 'K "Illustrator"'
> vs. the 'Adobe "Illustrator"'.
But the fact remains that "Illustrator" is a word that can be found
in the English dictionary and a company should not be able to trademark
it alone.
For instance, if we were talking about food instead of software -
Prarie Farms Milk should be a valid trademark - only one company (Prarie
Farms) should be able to put their name on milk and sell it. However,
Prarie Farms shouldn't be able to go after someone else for selling
KMilk or whatever.
> Still stupid, but illustrator isn't near as common a word as say word or
> draw or office. There are also other things that could've been used, e.g.
> KVectorGraphics, KArtist or probably even K Illustration Package.
Could have, but the developer shouldn't *have* to choose a less descriptive
word. The word illustrator is still quite common.
> I don't know if I'd rather have companies getting to trademark words in
> specific industries or have them throwing in more words, e.g. kleenex,
> crescent wrench ( the crescent wrench co went out of business long ago ),
> Q-tip, bandaid, etc. All those stodgy profs in .de deciding to change the
> language is bad enough[1]. Letting marketing weasels do it is a true horror
> of modern times ;-).
Well, that's a linguist's debate there. I tend to enjoy some new words,
it's when existing words get perverted to mean something else that it
bugs me. For instance, until I was about ten or twelve, the word party
wasn't a verb... It still annoys me when people use it as such.
> The real problem is that they apparently didn't just ask that he change
> it. The 4.000 DM bill is what sucks the most.
Yup.
I think everyone should send Adobe a polite letter or email - POLITE, mind
you - asking that they quit trying to crucify the guy and pointing out how
silly the action is.
If it's not Adobe's intent, and the lawyers are going it on their own in
Adobe's name, then they need to reign in their sharks.
Take care,
Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier@earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
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"Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, doctor,
and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it."
-- Elwood P. Dowd
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