Re: use/ownership of "Open Source"
By all means, protect the Open Source name. The last thing needed is an
increase in the amount of abuse that has been incurring. Apple calling
MacOS X Server "Open Source" is absurd, and will only dillute the worth of
such claims.
-l.f
On Wed, 7 Apr 1999, Andrew G . Feinberg wrote:
> First off, I am not going to claim to know alot about the inner workings of
> SPI. I am not going to claim to be any kind of uberauthority on any subject.
> However, I am going to state my opinion, and solicit feedback.
>
> The term "Open Source" is owned by SPI as a certification mark.
> "Open Source" has become a rather popular term in the computing industry.
> However, we do own the mark, and we have neglected the fact that we can legally require people to comply with the Open Source Definition. This neglect has
> allowed groups like Apple and random people (Al Gore?) to misappropriate
> the mark for their own purposes. I am going to propose a rather radical idea
> here:
> We (SPI and the Free Software community) need to assert control over
> our ideas. This includes management of the Open Source mark. We cannot
> allow people to dilute the meaning of Open Source. I see the mark as
> being alot like Microsoft's "Designed for Windows NT" program...a
> project may display an Open Source logo (hey..theres an idea) and
> use the term "Open Source" in its advertising and other documents
> as long as the project complies with the OSD. We do not need to
> certify every single project out there, only point out to people who
> misuse the mark that they are in the wrong, and perhaps enfore
> compliance (cease-and-desist letters, etc?).
> We routinely bitch at people who try to restrict our rights in the name of
> "Intellectual Property." Why can't we protect ours when people try and use it
> against us? I would like to know people's feelings on the subject...if your
> reply is private, please direct it to me, but otherwise, share it with the
> list.
>
> Andrew
> --
> Andrew G. Feinberg agf@debian.org andrew@ultraviolet.org
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>
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