"Fedora" in a domain name

[Paul W. Frields]

On Mon, Feb 09, 2009 at 10:07:52AM -0500, Scott Williams wrote:
> Part of my intention for a separate domain is to keep as distinguished
> as possible from fp.o.  In short, to allow this project to be tested
> on it's own merits, and also to avoid end user confusion.  A distinct
> domain, in my opinion, is the best solution for that.  Ultimately, I
> would welcome this project's full absorption into Fedora project, but
> in the meantime I would like to remain as independent as possible.
> Although I trust this would likely not to be the issue, but if the
> domain is owned by Fedora, what would keep Fedora from shutting us
> down at will, and forcing us to get a new domain?

Well, I would hope that the time you've spent in Fedora would make it
clear that we *don't* want to shut community domains down which are
trying new things.  There is, after all, a very wide stretch between
not wanting to devote project hosting and resources to some specific
experiment, and trying to prevent the community from running it
independently! :-)

In fact, that's why, in part, we established the "fedoracommunity.org"
domain -- because that way we can offer a domain to local or specific
Fedora-related communities, and for which the communities don't have
to pay out of pocket.

That aside, I'm not sure how any domain with the word "Fedora" in it
is any more removed than any other.  In other words, "fedoraforever"
is no more removed than "fedoracommunity" in my estimation.
Nevertheless, we've set out that local communities can establish these
domains with a proper license agreement, and I for one am happy to
follow through.

> With my pledge to strictly follow the Trademark guidelines as set
> forth by Legal in the wiki, I would like to register a domain in my
> own name for now: FedoraForever.{com,net,org}.  I also intend to use
> licenses, such as OPL, to allow compatibility with fp.o in foresight
> of potential future collaboration.

Speaking purely from one contributor to another, and in the interest
of not having you be unhappy in the long run, I'd recommend that
before you invest out of pocket for domains, you have other details of
your project nailed down.  If you find that participation isn't there,
for some reason, it would be a shame to have paid in advance for the
domains.

That having been said, if you're dead-set on registering this domain
regardless, I'll be happy to add this to the Board's agenda for this
week and get back with you right afterward.  You should wait to
register until you hear back from the Board.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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