From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Mar 16 16:56:58 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from lariat.lariat.org (lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A094637BA93 for ; Thu, 16 Mar 2000 16:56:55 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from mustang (IDENT:ppp0.lariat.org@lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by lariat.lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA17654; Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:56:08 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <4.2.2.20000316174913.041235e0@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.2 Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:56:03 -0700 To: Rahul Siddharthan From: Brett Glass Subject: Re: The Merger, and what will its effects be on committers? Cc: Doug Barton , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: References: <4.2.2.20000315174932.03efa380@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 06:08 PM 3/15/2000 , Rahul Siddharthan wrote: >As an ordinary user not at all associated with FreeBSD >development, I find both positions uncomfortable. Obviously not >anyone should be allowed to use the FreeBSD trademark: it would >then cease to have value as a trademark. If Brett insists that >anyone should unconditionally be allowed to use it, one can only >suspect his motives. Actually, what *I* suspect is the possible motives for some of the conditions. So far, the trademark Linux has been allowed to be used for any purpose that is not deceptive or defamatory, and it has worked well. Restricting the name in any other case requires an excessive amount of oversight and too much of a chance that case-by-case judgments will be biased by vested interests. Market forces should take care of products of poor quality; they won't sell and will soon be gone. So, if a product is viable and doesn't use the name FreeBSD deceptively (that is, it really has something to do with FreeBSD), why not let it use the name? >On the other hand, it is a legitimate question whether someone >who adds on a new installer, or some graphical tools for system >administration, or whatever, but leaves the basic OS unchanged, >can continue to distribute it under the name FreeBSD. I think so, too. After all, it still *is*, fundamentally, FreeBSD. With improvements that can enhance the usability and reputation of the OS. >I believe >that they should be allowed to do so, if their product satisfies >some compatibility conditions which should be clearly laid out. >Apparently some core members who've been contributing on this >thread agree with the above; others think that such packagers can >call their product SomethingelseBSD So long as WC granted permission for the use of the letters "BSD." (I think that "BSD" is probably a generic term, but who wants to fight in court about that?) --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message