Won't be working on Fedora 12 Beta release notes

[Ruediger Landmann]

On 09/22/2009 07:50 AM, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> What is listserv

An electronic mailing list. In the present context, fedora-docs-list 
specifically.

Released in the late 1980s, LISTSERV was the first automated management 
software for electronic mailing lists. Although LISTSERV is a trademark 
of L-Soft for this particular piece of software, people colloquially use 
the word to refer to /any/ electronic mailing list management software 
and -- by extension -- to any electronic mailing list. This is similar 
to the way that people use the word "xerox" to refer to any photocopier, 
photocopy or -- as a verb -- the act of producing a photocopy.[1]

You can find out more about LISTSERV at L-Soft's website,[2] and of 
course at Wikipedia.[3]

A search for "listservs" on Google produces over 500,000 hits.[4] As a 
trademark, LISTSERV should never be written in plural form. It is 
therefore likely that most of the pages found by this search use the 
word "listservs" in a generic sense to refer to electronic mailing 
lists. Indeed, many of the hits on the first page of results demonstrate 
this usage unambiguously. Consider the following examples from the first 
page of hits:

* "LISTSERVS, also called mailing lists, are a way of communicating via 
email on various topics..."

* "ISACA and ITGI have established several listservs..."

* "List of listservs (e-mail-based discussion forums) targeted to 
student interests..."

* "In the Commonwealth, LISTSERVs are one of the ways to support 
communications among students..."

* "Listservs are a popular means of communication and discussion within 
the Academy of Management."

Cheers

Rudi


[1] This kind of usage is said to "genericise" a trademark and creates a 
problem for trademark holders. The Wikipedia article on the subject 
explains the phenomenon and its legal implications well -- 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark

[2] http://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv.asp

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LISTSERV

[4] http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=listservs