[I am not subscribed to debian-bsd.] On Sat, Dec 13, 2003 at 09:28:12AM +0430, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote: > On Fri, Dec 12, 2003 at 11:54:09AM -0500, > Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> wrote > a message of 126 lines which said: > > > Debian either needs a trademark license from the NetBSD Foundation > > for use of the "NetBSD" mark, or it does not. > > Legally speaking, you're right. Now, on more practical grounds, I do > not think that the NetBSD Foundation threatened to sue us. I didn't say they did. They did identify a legal theory for doing so in the future, though. It's not like there is a common law of trademark dilution, or a "natural right" of trademarks. I think the polite thing to do, if one has no intention of suing someone, is not to speculate to a person's face about what the thrust of your court complaint might be. The TNF has made it clear enough that they feel they have legal remedies at their disposal if we don't handle their request in a manner to their liking. That's enough to get the legally-minded members of the Debian Project involved, IMO. > I believe that they feared confusion and asked politely, as an humble > request from fellow free software developers, to consider a change in > the name. Yes, they did that. They also, if Joel Baker's representations as to the content of the communication are accurate, included a statement inviting us to make the inference that they have ways of compelling our compliance if the courteous approach doesn't work. As I said above, I think that's rude. It may be a rudeness that they feel they were forced to indulge due to the way U.S. trademark law works, but that doesn't make it any less of a discourtesy. As I noted elsewhere in this thread, I don't feel they're acting *irrationally*. We, the Debian Project, have made similar requests of people using the word "Debian". At least recently, our communications have included the hint of the iron fist inside the velvet glove, just as the message Joel Baker received did. It's the way the trademark game is played. Should we go into hysterics? No. Neither should we pretend that the threat of legal recourse is not present. > I do not think debian-legal is concerned: it is not an issue of being > right with trademark law, it's an issue of not pissing off NetBSD > people for no good reason. Sounds like it's both to me. I think you are fundamentally misreading the situation. Pretending a legal threat is absent when it is not is a good way to get a very nasty surprise when someone decides to up the ante. I suggest that the Debian Project not allow ourselves to be taken by surprise in this situation. -- G. Branden Robinson | Religion is regarded by the common Debian GNU/Linux | people as true, by the wise as branden@debian.org | false, and by the rulers as useful. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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