On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 04:22:47PM -0500, C. Bond wrote:
> I'm very sad this is all happening. But however you may feel
> about NuSphere, I find it a bit unsettling that MySQL AB, as
> an open-source organization, would claim a trademark in the
> first place. From what I've seen, it looks like both sides
> are being equally childish.
There's nothing wrong with holding a trademark on a name,
even if it IS tied to an open source product.
Linus Torvalds holds a trademark on Linux, for example.
I normally laugh when I hear about companies suing over what looks like
a stupid trademark dispute. No doubt, just because it happens so often,
whenever we hear about a trademark lawsuit, we're inclined to go
"oh brother". In the case of MySQL AB, however, it couldn't be
more justified.
Could you imagine what would happen if 4 other companies
came along and started offering their own version of mysql, also
calling it simply "MySQL"? That's more misinformation than I could
bear. The list already receives about 5 e-mails a week from people
asking when MySQL will support transactions.
Another example: mysql.org used to require users to register
before they could download mysql. What happens when mysql.org decides
to start spamming? What happens when they resell the list to the
highest bidder?
It's not unreasonable to expect that users will think that "The MySQL Company"
is spamming them. MySQL AB had nothing to do with the domain, but they
would suffer on behalf of someone else's actions.
--
Michael Bacarella <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Technical Staff / System Development,
New York Connect.Net, Ltd.
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