[ILUG] Redhat Licensing

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Darragh Bailey (felix at compsoc.nuigalway.ie):

> From the examples of Lin----.com, Lindows, www.mikerowesoft.com &
> Mobolix it seems to me that over empowering the owners of trademarks
> is very common among judges in certain countries.

Those were all cases (1) within the same industry, and (2) where the
trademark holder was able to convince a judge that the trademark owner's 
customers were likely to be confused (etc.)

Well, actually, _one_ of your cases isn't even that.  Mike Rowe was merely
threatened -- i.e., some paralegal at Microsoft Corporation lavished the
princely cost of first-class postage on sending him a demand letter --
and he meekly caved in, like a typical techie.  

Worse, he first committed the biggest and most notorious bonehead error 
in the domain-dispute field:  Instead of saying "No dice", he offered to 
sell his domain for US $10,000, thereby presumptively showning himself
to be a domain squatter and ensuring that plaintiff would automatically
prevail under ICANN UDRP rules without even needing to go to court.

Morals of that story: 

1.  Legal rights don't assert themselves, and lawyers absolutely adore
you for handing them a victory that they don't have to fight because you
throw in the towel in advance.

2.  Even an otherwise unassailable position can be sabotaged through
committing legal seppuku, e.g., by saying the wrong thing at the wrong
time.

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                Best Regards, Rick Moen, rick at linuxmafia.com