From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 16 05:53:18 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C73C737B401 for ; Fri, 16 May 2003 05:53:18 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp3.server.rpi.edu (smtp3.server.rpi.edu [128.113.2.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 026BF43F85 for ; Fri, 16 May 2003 05:53:18 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from drosih@rpi.edu) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.netel.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by smtp3.server.rpi.edu (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id h4GCrCiJ023700; Fri, 16 May 2003 08:53:12 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: drosih@mail.rpi.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <3EC485F8.2BDF90B8@mindspring.com> References: <3EC2FB53.67559AB6@bellatlantic.net> <20030515025309.GA28371@mooseriver.com> <3EC485F8.2BDF90B8@mindspring.com> Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 08:53:11 -0400 To: Terry Lambert From: Garance A Drosihn Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.28 cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: a public relations opportunity for BSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 12:53:19 -0000 At 11:32 PM -0700 5/15/03, Terry Lambert wrote: >Garance A Drosihn wrote: > > I agree completely. For one, you can't "Not comment > > on whether the charges are true", and then turn around > > and try to advertise your product based on the very > > same charges. > >This, at least, is incorrect, since FreeBSD is free from >taint, due to the USL/UCB lawsuit settlement of 1994. > >Linux has no such settlement document. Well, obviously that is true, but that isn't what I meant. What I meant is you can not sit back and say "Hey, I am making no comment on whether the charges against linux are right, but just co-incidentally this morning I decided to get up and tell the world that FreeBSD does not have the same legal issues that linux is accused of". The fact that "you" (the generic you) are starting to advertise that *you* are innocent is most certainly a direct result and thus an implied comment on the guilt of Linux. It's like saying "I won't comment on whether the incumbent mayor stole the car he's driving, but just this morning I happened to decide that I should wave around the bill-of-sale for my own car and thus you should vote for me". It is a campaign of marketing-through-FUD. It could be 100% accurate that you do own your car, but the only reason you're waving around that bill-of-sale is because of the charges against the other guy. Let's say the court system works remarkably fast, and next Monday the courts throw out SCO's case as being "Totally Without Merit". Then how stupid would we look for saying "Hey, over here, we're the innocent guys!". What I'm saying is that I would have been completely comfortable with the suggested marketing campaign if the idea popped up a year ago, but it is not appropriate to *start* such a campaign right now, and thus try to cash in on this lawsuit against another open-source project. -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu