Importance of trademarks (was RE: [OT] What is Open Source?....)

[Nick Arnett]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: python-list-admin at python.org
> [mailto:python-list-admin at python.org]On Behalf Of Clark C . Evans

...

> There is a difference between "trademark" and "copyright".  RMS firmly
> believes in trademarks; and he believes that he has a special right to
> manage development of projects (named by a trademark) he has initiated.

Trademark law was what allowed Sun to stop Microsoft from applying its
"embrace and extend (and destroy)" approach to Java.  I think that's an
excellent example of how trademarks can be used to prevent what I like to
call "unfair cooperation."

Anti-trust law never really contemplated the importance of open standards as
we know them today, so it protects against actions that tend to diminish
fair competition.  So, anyone who wants to mess with a standard could defend
their actions by arguing that they are enhancing competition.  But in this
day and age, behavior that diminishes fair cooperation -- as Microsoft was
trying to do to Java -- is at least as important to stifle as the
traditional notions of unfair competition, in my opinion.

I'd love to see some public discussion of what kind of laws might strengthen
protection and opening up of standards as they emerge.  Seems to me that
when something like AIM becomes widely used, its protocols should become
open and standardized.  That's what patent law does -- assures that
inventions become open (that's what 'patent' means, after all) eventually.
The main reason patents don't work for software is that the length of
protection is too long in most cases, so that by the time software patents
expire, the technology is often worthless.

Meanwhile, we can all hope (and act so) that the PSF and affiliates will use
the trademark to prevent anyone from trying to create a proprietary version
with the same or similar name.

Nick