[tur-users] Ion3 trademark infringement

[Robert Emil Berge]

On Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:27:33 -0500
"Aaron Griffin" <aaronmgriffin at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 4/30/07, Tuomo Valkonen <tuomov at iki.fi> wrote:
> > > The _RESULT_ of building patched software with the help of
> > > PKGBUILD or modified Makefile is derivative work.
> > > Feel the difference! (tm)
> >
> > No. A PKGBUILD that patches the original code is a derivative work.
> > It does not merely apply the interfaces provided by the original
> > work to build it; it changes it. Therefore, it becomes a derivative
> > work. The PKGBUILD is the source code of its result, together with
> > the works it derives from.
> 
> IANAL, but I know a few.  I will ask them about this topic when I get
> a chance, but I'm pretty sure that Roman is correct here.  You cannot
> extend your copyright outward like that to the tools used to build
> your program.  It just doesn't work that way.  You are saying that
> gentoo ebuilds, FreeBSD makefiles, and ArchLinux PKGBUILDs are all
> derivative works of the original source they build from?  I highly
> doubt this is true.
I think discussing this is quite silly, but we all seem to get upset
about Tuomo's attitude, so it's good to get some steam out...
Most of the discussion, however, seems to be about what we can do with
the code, which has to do with copyrights. Tuomo is only complaining
about what we do with the name of the program, ion3. In AUR we are in
fact refering to a patched version of ion3 as a variant of ion3, even
without distributing it. 
I don't know the legal foundations for threatening people with law
suits for using unregistered trademarks, but I think we should respect
his feelings and stop using the name ion3 for anything else than the
"official" program. Then I also think we should respect the feelings of
most people in the Arch Linux and the whole FOSS community and ignore
people who act the way Tuomo does. I suggest that ion3 should be
removed from all repos, and only be included again under a different
name if someone more reasonable adopts the development of the program.
 
  -filoktetes



> 
> Here's the important line from the LGPL / GPL: "Activities other than
> copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this
> License; they are outside its scope. "
> 
> This includes building and installing.  They are outside the scope of
> the license.  Additionally, I am not talking about the xft patched
> version that was in the AUR.  That is actually covered by another
> copyright "gotcha" where a name change is sufficient to indicate it is
> not the original product - think "GAIM vs AIM".
> 
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