Re: [OT] Harassment of open source developer !
On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 12:05:14PM -0700, Eric G. Miller wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 01:00:38PM -0500, Balbir Thomas wrote:
> > Hi,
> > Yet another case of open source developers being harassed. Adobe
> > lawyers ask developer of killustrator to pay fines for using a name
> > that abuses their trade mark illustrator. Go read about it at slashdot
> > , and then give your feedback to Adobe. I already did. We can't let
> > such harassment go without being protested. If I were a conspiracy
> > theorist I would see a pattern here . While corporation are leagly
> > portected to indulge in some kinds of "negative advertising" as a
> > "competitive stratergy" open source developer are sued because the
> > english language words are now "trademarks".
>
> Protest all you like, but I think Adobe probably has a valid claim of
> trademark infringement. It doesn't take any stretch of imagination to
> see that "KIllustrator" is a knock-off of "Adobe Illustrator [tm]".
> Like it or not, probably any U.S. court would agree. I'm sure the
> "KIllustrator" folks will just change the name and move on. Nothing
> will be gained by stuffing Adobe's inbox with rants. While Adobe has
> been circumspect about Linux and *BSD, a bunch of rants is more likely
> just to irritate them and make them not want to support Linux/*BSD in
> the future.
>
> Eric G. Miller <egm2@jps.net>
I would believe the ethical way to deal with an opensource developer, who
doesn't profit from his products is to contact him first, rather than throw
a bunch of law dogs at him. After all what kind of a person or company would
want to levy a financial burden on a man who has contributed his time and
resources, for a community benifit . Would you wan't to do that to Abe L. ?
Adobe did no such thing .
The point of protesting is to develop, (over a period of time) a business ethic
of resolving disputes in the opensource community. For instance such an ethic already exits as far a product support goes -- one ask for help politely in a forum as this. One does not conisder it a right to send mail like a dissatisfied customer writing to some company who he/she paid a lot of money too. I hope you see the point . The time must come when companies realise that open source developers are not to be dealt with in the same "dog eat dog" way they do among their lot. Not putting up protests, would only encourage a trend of bullying helpless
open source (or rather free software) developers.
While I do appreciate what may have been your concern to take a balanced point of view, to portray oneself(or the opensource community ) in good standing. I do not believe there can be any scope for neutrality in battle. Neutrality is only a form of tacit support. You are probably right that what will eventually come out of this is that the developer would just change the name and go on . And this is fact that I will have to accept with great regret.
Perhaps you may also agree that X Windows ought to naturally sue Microsoft for
a trademark infringement ? This among other interesting points to ponder on are
in the long streem of replies in the slashdot thread . I hope people will have a look at it.
Earnestly
B Thomas
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