Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2001 22:37:17 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Greg Lehey" <grog@FreeBSD.org> Cc: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>, <core@FreeBSD.org> Subject: RE: Use of the UNIX Trademark Message-ID: <003301c14e28$f5ed1be0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20011006141106.L13748@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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>-----Original Message----- >From: Greg Lehey [mailto:grog@FreeBSD.org] >Sent: Friday, October 05, 2001 9:41 PM >To: Ted Mittelstaedt >Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org >Subject: Re: Use of the UNIX Trademark > >> >> This statement is perfectly permissible. In it FreeBSD is not being >> called UNIX and UNIX is not being called FreeBSD. Many things >> besides FreeBSD are very economical alternatives to commercial UNIX >> workstations. This statement is almost a verbatim copy of many that >> are on the Microsoft website. > >Please let the core team handle this. This is a potentially delicate >situation, and we don't want to annoy her by sending her mail messages >from different directions. > I disagree Greg (that this is a delicate situation) - you haven't been following what TOG is doing to say that. There's no room for negotiation with these people. They are fixated on the idea that purchasing the UNIX trademark is an investment and by God they are going to see a return on it come hell or high water. The core has only two choices here - conform to the TOG guidelines on the usage of the word UNIX or pay up the money. If you think that by treating them with kid gloves that we are going to get any kind of special dispensation out of them your dreaming. TOG is seeing the UNIX licensees go out of business right and left until only a few are left. This seriously impacts the cash flow to their investment, and their reaction to it is what you just saw in the forum. TOG is run by folks that couldn't give a damn about UNIX and know nothing whatsover about it's history and care nothing about how well it does against Microsoft or what marketing issues are involved. All they are is a bunch of cold-hearted accountants. The FreeBSD Project will never in a million years get any kind of legal document out of TOG giving them carte-blache permission for free to use the word UNIX as they please. In any case we are getting off lightly - all we have to worry about is changing some text here and there. Xfree86 had to fight with these people over their very code itself. It's a damn shame that the UNIX term was ever got into this mess to begin with but what do you expect from AT&T. >If you feel there's something important to be said, please forward it >to core@FreeBSD.org. Note, though, that we already have a draft >letter for discussion which, amongst others, brings up exactly the >points you raise here. > I've already had to deal with this UNIX trademark issue in my own book - which much more than the FreeBSD website is subjected to this same kind of legal combing by TOG lawyers. Do you think that they haven't already gone through it looking for things to sue me and Addison Wesley over? Sheesh! I knew that was going to happen before it went to press the same as you knew for your own book. I fail to see why we are pussyfooting around. TOG caught the website maintainers with their pants down and that's all their is to it and has a perfect right to say what they said. Score one for them. What we need to do now is to say "OK, you caught me" and fix the website to go into conformance, end of discussion. The core is making a big mistake to send TOG any kind of letter. We won't get squat as a result, no matter how many letters we send them unless there's a check inside one. We are much better off not having any paper on file that could be used later on to beat us over the head with in a lawsuit. All TOG wants now is for the FreeBSD website to stop calling FreeBSD UNIX. Fine, we all know the truth, just put the site in compliance and be done with it. Start sending them letters and this thing could blow up in our face. Geeze Greg, you've worked for corporations before, you know how this thing works. All we have now is some clueless "Trademarks Portfolio Manager" that stumbled across the FreeBSD website and saw the word UNIX probably by keying "UNIX" into Google. Send her a letter and do you think she is going to engage in a dialog with you? HA! The second she gets paper it's going to go straight to the legal department who is going to start issuing a bunch of cease and desist demands and is going to start digging through the website and flagging everything with the word UNIX in it. A letter is the best thing to escalate this out of control. >Those committers reading this, please don't "fix" the first >reference. Yes, it needs fixing, but we need to consider just what >text we'll use to replace it. > I find that the TOG usage guidelines on use of the term UNIX are simple and clear. There's a wide variety of text that can replace that statement that will be in compliance to them and all we are doing by "considering" what to say is delaying it which is just going to piss them off. Strike the offensive statement immediately and "consider" what to replace it with later. Anyone can get plenty of examples of how to skirt the issue and still say the same thing by reviewing XFree86's website. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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