The debian-private mailing list leak, part 1. Volunteers have complained about Blackmail. Lynchings. Character assassination. Defamation. Cyberbullying. Volunteers who gave many years of their lives are picked out at random for cruel social experiments. The former DPL's girlfriend Molly de Blanc is given volunteers to experiment on for her crazy talks. These volunteers never consented to be used like lab rats. We don't either. debian-private can no longer be a safe space for the cabal. Let these monsters have nowhere to hide. Volunteers are not disposable. We stand with the victims.
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re:"Social Contract" [anti-trust]

On Thu, 26 Jun 1997, Bruce Perens wrote:

> From: Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>
> > The use of Debian as a starting
> > oint for other distributions is only useful if the other distribution can
> > dvertise that it is using Debian.
> 
> My intent so far has been to restrict the words "Official" and "Debian"
> together in a product name to be used only for exactly that data which
> Debian releases as its official CD set, and only for the complete set,
> not for the binary CD without source.

Then we should probably trademark "Official Debian".

> 
> In addition, I would restrict the use of the "Debian" trademark in
> certain malice-aforethought situations such as insertion of viruses,
> time-bombs, deliberate damage to the system with intent to defame,
> etc. It's a lot easier to get damages for a trademark violation than
> it is for libelous action. 
> 
The problem is that what your intended use of the trademark is selective,
that is, you would not apply the trademark restrictions in every case
where the law would apply. The courts do not support "selective
enforcement". In fact I think there is something in the constitution about
the "uniform application" of the law. (equal justice?)

We need to be very careful about using the trademark in this fashion. An
outside entity, checking with his legal advisor, is likely to be
discouraged from continuing with a project, based on the legal advice
recieved on the trademark issue.

This brings up another question. Windows 95 is trademarked. I know that
software manufacturers who wish to say "95 compliant" must get
authorization from MS to do so. As I understand it, and I'm not a lawyer,
the use of the name in print should require some permission from the
trademark owner. Is that the reason so many manuals have a paragraph in
the copyright page expressing the fact that such and such is a registered
trademark of so and so. Is that declaration sufficient protection from
trademark violation? I'm really ignorant about such issues.

While I agree that we need to protect the name, I'm just not sure that a
trademark is the way to do it.

Luck,

Dwarf
-- 
_-_-_-_-_-_-                                          _-_-_-_-_-_-_-

aka   Dale Scheetz                   Phone:   1 (904) 656-9769
      Flexible Software              11000 McCrackin Road
      e-mail:  dwarf@polaris.net     Tallahassee, FL  32308

_-_-_-_-_-_- If you don't see what you want, just ask _-_-_-_-_-_-_-


--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-private-request@lists.debian.org . 
Trouble?  e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .