Scripsit Branden Robinson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > On Sat, Dec 13, 2003 at 09:28:12AM +0430, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> > Legally speaking, you're right. Now, on more practical grounds, I do > > not think that the NetBSD Foundation threatened to sue us. > I didn't say they did. They did identify a legal theory for doing so in > the future, though. It's not like there is a common law of trademark > dilution, or a "natural right" of trademarks. Would you at least consider that possibility that they might have meant exactly what they said: "We're somewhat worried that if someday we have to defend our trademark against a real villain, then the villain may be able to get off the hook by pointing to Debian/FreeBSD. Could we work together on finding another name that will let us sleep tighter?" Just because the fear they related *could* be used as grounds for a lawsuit doesn't mean that it's not real. > I think the polite thing to do, if one has no intention of suing > someone, is not to speculate to a person's face about what the > thrust of your court complaint might be. How would you expect them to that, if you insist of reading the mere mention of why they are uneasy as a veiled lawsuit threat? Should they just say: "We humbly suggest that you change your name, but we cannot tell you why, because that would sound like a lawsuit threat?" (BTW, to me it's immediately clear that it can't be a threat, because they know that we know that a threat would be completely empty, because we know that they know that they would earn an ocean of bad karma if they actually attacked another majour open-source project through the courts.) > The TNF has made it clear enough that they feel they have legal remedies > at their disposal if we don't handle their request in a manner to their > liking. I think you're seing spectres. -- Henning Makholm "... and that Greek, Thucydides"
