On Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 03:43:13PM -0400, Bob Scheifler wrote: > Leo Simons wrote: > > I guess this means keeping jini.org around for a long time to come, and I > > think > > this means you need a name for "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" which is not "jini" :) > > Could you expand on why you think that? Thanks.
IANAL and not an expert but I can try. More concretely, "jini" is a name/brand/trademark which seens to be governed by eg http://www.sunsource.net/TUPPCP.html http://www.sun.com/suntrademarks/ And is owned by sun for which there are rather strict guidelines: http://www.sun.com/policies/trademarks/ Similarly, terms like "apache", "jakarta", "tomcat" are also marks (even if not registered) which are somehow "owned" by the ASF (and we have a PRC committee to protect them). When "SpamAssassin" entered incubation the trademark (which was registered) ownership was transferred to the ASF, so the name was kept for the new project. If the "jini" name is not "owned" by the ASF (not just legally, also morally), we shouldn't name our software directly after it, for a variety of reasons, like * its less confusing for users * it avoids potential legal worries * it avoids a whole lot of discussion, hurt feelings, etc. * if a project ever outgrows its original boundaries a bit (happens quite often, for example lucene had a C port while it was still at jakarta) its not a problem This is why there is no java.apache.org but instead there is jakarta.apache.org, there is no j2se.apache.org but there is harmony, there is no j2ee.apache.org but there is geronimo, etc. There was, in fact, at some point, a java.apache.org, and IIUC the ASF got a lot of flak about that from sun legal (and rightly so). While its quite possible to change names halfway through incubation, in general IMHO its just easier to "bite the bullet" up front because various resources (jira projects, svn repositories, mailing lists, etc) are coupled to the name. To answer another question, yes, I believe this also means that there should be no "jini" in the name. There's a variety of creative ways most open source projects deal with that, like putting lots of extra letters in and around a word, naming by association (so you end up with "Apache Aladdin" since that's about genies too), or naming through acronyms (so you end up with "Apache JiKit" for "JIni Kit"). I hope the above is clear. I'm really no expert. If there's need for further details, I would suggest talking to a trademark/branding lawyer or two. But usually its just a lot easier to pick a new name, so that's what we tend to do :) LSD --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
