Simon Phipps wrote: > > On Nov 1, 2007, at 20:31, Stephen Lau wrote: > >> Shawn Walker wrote: >>> Please stop saying Sun; it's inflammatory and inaccurate. This was a >>> decision made by a project with the allowance of other individuals at >>> Sun. It should be obvious by now that not everyone agrees regardless >>> of whether they work at Sun. Stating Sun in the way you do dismisses >>> the individual views and makes a faceless corporation out of a >>> company. >>> >> It depends on the viewpoint. Given that Sun is the only one who can >> declare the use of the trademark, it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to >> say that Sun is the one who has made the decision. > > I don't think accusing a legal fiction gets us anywhere. It lets the > actual offenders off the hook without allowing the anger to dissipate. > Ultimately all decisions are the responsibility of an actual person. > I'll repeat here what I said on osol-discuss: > >> By the way (and not directed just at you), speaking of "Sun" as a >> decision-maker is unhelpful in my view. "Sun" is a legal fiction[1] >> and plenty of people with divergent opinions in this community work >> speak on its behalf. It is far better to name names when a decision >> is concerned - they have all been taken by a living person somewhere >> since legal fictions are unable to do so. >> >> If you know who took a decision, name them. If you don't, refer to >> them as "the un-named decision maker" and ask who it is. I think >> knowing who we're criticising is key to reaching a resolution. >> >> >> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_fiction#Corporate_personality > > S. We don't know who made the decision.
We know the decision was made within Sun Microsystems, Inc. since only Sun Microsystems Inc. has the right, as trademark owner, to have made this action. "Un-named decision maker at Sun Microsystems Inc." isn't catchy. ;-) And likewise suffers from letting the actual offenders off the hook. But true, we haven't asked who made this decision. So I'll ask: who made it? cheers, steve -- stephen lau | stevel at opensolaris.org | www.whacked.net
