On 1/25/2012 2:10 PM, Chris Radek wrote: > Michael, > > Thanks for your criticism. I have taken several days to think about > it. I have not discussed my thoughts with the board and I am > speaking only for myself and to my own relationship to the project. > > I agree with you that there are some technical problems with how the > renaming was done; in particular, changes of variable or object names > in the source is unnecessary from a branding standpoint and > unnecessarily destabilizing. It's possible we could revert those > mistakes and perhaps we should. I think Jeff has responded to these > thoughts too. > > <...> > The first letter from the lawyer was directly to me. I hope you and > others can understand that since there is no LinuxCNC organization and > that we are only a bunch of individuals, those of us with (titular?) > authority and responsibility had particular personal danger in this > proceeding. My goals personally (again I am not speaking for the > others) were, in order: > > Protect myself and other individuals involved in the project > from a ruinous lawsuit brought by an immensely wealthy > multinational corporation that could cause grave hardship for > us and our loved ones; > > Find an outcome that allows the continuation of the LinuxCNC > project with as little disruption as possible, and that is > likely to help us avoid more of this kind of mess in the > future; > > Not piss off other developers and users too much. > > I think we have succeeded with #1 and #2, and not very well with #3. > > Chris:
I think you folks performed remarkably well when this situation arose. You won't hear any complaints from me, just sympathy that it did arise*. I'll let others debate what our board should be and do. I think the momentary instability caused by the rebranding is acceptable particularly because it comes just before rather than just after a significant release. We seem to be reducing the radius of confusion every day. The effort has been started, let's finish it. As an aside, I hope you and the other board members carry umbrella insurance policies to help mitigate your 'particular personal danger', which is quite real. These policies not expensive, at least in the US; I bought one for my wife the day she decided to quit her job and hang out her shingle as a consultant, precisely so our personal holdings would not be at immediate risk. Regards, Kent *and you're not alone. A quick search on the term "trademark bullying" will reveal fascinating accounts as well as the inconclusive results of last year's study of the problem commissioned by Congress. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
