Re: [OT] Harassment of open source developer !
On Wed, 4 Jul 2001, Eric G. Miller wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 03:43:56PM -0500, Balbir Thomas wrote:
> > 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 .
>
> Ain't no benefit to Adobe if KIllustrator actually becomes competive. I
> understand your point that maybe Adobe should've contacted the developer
> in a less threatening manner first... I don't imagine Adobe will persue
> this matter unless the KIllustrator authors don't change the name. If
> they continued to pursue civil damages after a name change, then I can
> see getting a bit irate.
Actually, from what I read, the law firm is seeking financial damages
around $2K even though the developer has already said he'd change the
name - and the law firm won't confirm or deny that Adobe directly asked
for them to take this action. This may be a case of a firm being on
retainer by Adobe and going after a little extra cash without the tacit
approval of Adobe themselves - or Adobe may just be vindictive.
Either way, the guy wasn't given an opportunity to change the name -
which he shouldn't have to do anyway, since "illustrator" is a commonly
used word in the English language and no one should be able to trademark
a commonly used word by itself. "Adobe Illustrator" is clearly the
property of Adobe alone, but naming a product "Killustrator" should
be protected.
I really wish a week could go by without hearing about some conflict
in the computing industry. It's really depressing to see multi-million
or multi-billion dollar companies or high-profile developers who are
totally unable to comport themselves with the same ethics and dignity
that we expect from six-year-olds. I mean, really - what's the difference
between Adobe trying to attack an Open Source project that's not doing
them any harm and a small child running to Mommy because her brother
made a face? Geez, grow up.
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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