Re: opie trademark

On Thu, May 31, 2007 at 08:45:41AM +1200, Paul Eggleton wrote:
> Erik Hovland wrote:
> > If you want to go through the work of getting the Opie development
> > community together and arranging getting permission to use the Opie
> > trademark, I consider that a reasonable step forward in using it.
>
> In Lorn's defence, he did in fact ask on the Opie list first, and IIRC not
> only did nobody object, several people piped up and said they approved. If
> further clarification is needed we should consult the archives. If you ask
> me, in the case of Opie which is a project in need of new directions and
> ideas, he did pretty much all that he was obliged to do given that he is a
> long time member of the Opie team.

The thread where Lorn asked for permission:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.opie.devel/3884

An objection in that thread:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.opie.devel/3897

Someone giving permission:
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.handhelds.opie.devel/3885

Is that consensus? I would argue that it isn't.

> Clearly someone needs to define a new direction for Opie's future. Qt4 is
> the obvious choice, and basing work on that done by Trolltech is certainly
> in Opie's tradition and will bring results much faster than any other
> solution. OK, perhaps a different name might be a little less confusing
> for users, but if Lorn still wishes to use the same name a simple
> clarification on the OpieII website stating that OpieII is a new
> experimental/development branch of Opie would be enough, IMO.

OK, you give permission. One more in the Lorn column. Who is the
community though.

> On the other hand, as I have stated previously I still see a lot of
> value in developing the original Opie code base further since it is
> already in a fairly good state and offers a capable alternative
> platform to Windows CE/PocketPC on the same devices. I think we can
> comfortably do both things at once.

I think Opie and Lorn's project can co-exist. I might even concede that
he has permission to use the name OpieII if enough Opie developers give
permission.

> I have previously stayed silent on this issue, but I have to say that I am
> dismayed by the recent turn of events at handhelds.org regardless of their
> cause. Bringing trademarks into the matter has been hugely divisive. I can
> see both points of view, but it seems to me that in the Opie situation if
> any comparison is to be made, Lorn is much more in the right than George
> is.

Well, that is an interesting statement. Shades of rightness means that
there is fault in both sides. It means that Lorn has partial wrongness
as well as George.

> However, the rest of the Opie community needs to speak up, since it is
> the community that should surely decide on the issue, and IMO that
> includes people who have previously been contributors to Opie as well as
> currently active contributors, since the former group has significant
> investment in the project regardless of what they are doing now.

Agreed. If the community comes together and makes a decision I will
gladly accept it.

E

-- 
Erik Hovland
mail: erik_at_hovland.org
web: http://hovland.org/
PGP/GPG public key available on request