trademarks [was: xulrunner 2.0 in rawhide (F15) bundles several system libs]

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 10/06/2010 04:08 PM, Michal Schmidt wrote:
> On Wed, 06 Oct 2010 15:26:59 +0200 Ralf Corsepius wrote:
>> On 10/06/2010 02:49 PM, Matej Cepl wrote:
>>> Nonsense, trademarks exists to protect users and to avoid living off
>>> somebody else brand recognition.
>>
>> I disagree - trademarks exist to protect the manufacturer from
>> loosing profits because of their products being copied.
>>
>> Ask Adidas or Nike why they sue Chinese manufacturers and you'll see.
>> They'll tell you that they loose money because of being copied.
>
> Of course. But there's in fact no disagreement, only looking at
> different aspects of the same thing.
>
> Why do you think the copying takes place? Because the companies have
> built a good reputation and brand, allowing them to increase profit.
>
> Good quality =>  good reputation =>  solid brand =>  better profits.

I am not disagreeing that restrictive trademarks, patents, restricive 
license etc. all make sense in the commerical world.

However, this here is Fedora, a project that once was aiming at 
"Freedom" - As trivial as it is, restrictive trademark policies simply 
do not fit into this philosophy.

> Then copyists try to get better profits too without bothering to
> build their own good reputation, by deceiving the buyers into thinking
> the original company with good reputation produced their goods.
>
>
> I'm really quite surprised about this thread. Of all the stuff
> often put under the confusing term "intellectual property" I expected
> trademarks to be the least controversial.
Well, my view differs:
To me, restrictive trademarks are in the same league as patents and 
closed source.
Last century's, commercial world's instruments of protectionism which 
contradict the philosophy behind FLOSS. It's just thanks to the fact 
"restrictive prosecution of trademarks" are rare in the FLOSS world, 
which has caused it to get away more or less unattended.

Ralf