Australian Linux Trademark Holds Water 408
Seft writes "The Inquirer is running a story in response to the recent Linux trademark news in Australia which was previously covered on Slashdot. The story was dismissed as a hoax by many, but now it seems that Linus Torvalds is dead serious." John 'Maddog' Hall stated for the article that the move was not about getting a slice of anyone's action but purely to protect the quality of products that utilize the Linux name.
More at Groklaw (Score:3, Interesting)
They could have done a lot better... (Score:5, Interesting)
What was doubly annoying though was that the letter appeared to be sent out without checking to see if the recipient was applicable. None of the services or products that I had on my WWW site used the word "linux" in them, they simply happen to be able to
I still consider the email to be bordering very close to spam.
Next time, a registered letter in the post after each site is checked for relevance would be a far more reputable manner of distribution.
Not fair to very small projects (Score:5, Interesting)
It costs about $100 per TVLinux [tvlinux.org] show ( tapes, food, equipment), all paid by one person. TVLinux just wants to inform the TV public about open source and Linux. Do I drop 2-3 shows to pay for a "MARK". I think the rate should be $20-$50 for very small projects.
TVLinux
Lesson 2: Sense of Humour Needed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:They could have done a lot better... (Score:3, Interesting)
Drop a line to Linus and ask him if it is real. There's some kind of stipulation regarding fair use of a trademark, e.g. to reference the product's name in your documentation.
The trademark, as I understand it, should only cover conducting trade under the mark "Linux"
This is very close to what Redhat is doing. You can't use "Redhat" unless you've paid. Then you use "Fedora"... and then to confuse things a bit, they add some copyrighted materials to Redhat which are not Open Source so, I suppose for legitimate reasons, you can't start describing "Fedora" as "Redhat"
I'd be surprised and disturbed if this were true. O.k., I'm already disturbed, but I'd be more disturbed.
$5k to use a trademark is peanuts for the people who have the money to abuse it, and has nothing to do with protecting the Linux name. Cease and Desist letters to companies using Linux in unblessed or dangerous products seems more and appropriate (e.g. maybe revoking the trademark for kernel forks or kernels with unacknowledged and unblessed patches)
Is Linus running low on cash?
Re:I'm scratching my head here... (Score:1, Interesting)
I'll wait until I hear a statement from Linus himself.
Nothing to see here folks. Move along.
Linus really approves of Jeremy Malcolm? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Lesson 1: Proof read (Score:3, Interesting)
Why make the small guy pay? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why not just say that if your Linux related turnover exceeds $1bn a year you have to pay it all, and therfore let IBM pick up the tab (or better still simply ask them to use their legal team to defend the trademark)?