Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 13:27:08 -0400 From: Larry Sica <lomion@mac.com> To: Garance A Drosihn <drosih@rpi.edu> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: a public relations opportunity for BSD Message-ID: <9ED84436-87C3-11D7-B713-000393A335A2@mac.com> In-Reply-To: <p05210627baea8b0c9b92@[128.113.24.47]>
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On Friday, May 16, 2003, at 08:53 AM, Garance A Drosihn wrote: > 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. > That is not a good analogy. In this case there is obvious proof that FreeBSD does not suffer from this potential issue. Pointing this out could be just a matter of saying here this is the current climate. > 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!". > Not stupid at all since what was stated was true. FreeBSD was not affected. Actually it is important to point this out as FreeBSD is often lumped into linux. > 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. > > -- One could argue there never is a truly appropriate time. It is relevant as an issue right now, how is that not appropriate? --Larry
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