On 10/21/07, William Pietri william@scissor.com wrote:
Anthony wrote:
Of course what I meant is that actually forcing them to do so would be equivalent to robbery.
Well, I said they should be forced to make their work free content only if it can be done legally, which would make it quite distinct from robbery, which is illegal.
I find it interesting though that'd you'd equate enforcement of trademark law to robbery.
There is legal and there is right, and you shouldn't confuse the two.
I think I've been incredibly careful during this discussion in distinguishing between the two. In my opinion it's always right to force someone to release their work under a free license. Only some of the time it's legal, though.
If trademark law were badly written, it might still be legal to take this guy's work through threat of lawsuit. However, that would still still be wrong, as it's not our property and he hasn't harmed us. Certainly not in a way that requires him to give us months of work in recompense.
I don't really see it as requiring him to give us anything, just requiring him not to sue any of us, in exchange for the WMF agreeing not to sue him.