Jean-Baptiste Soufron wrote:
I am sorry to completely disagree :
Fastfission wrote:
Is the "many people" really very many
in a legal sense? I don't know
about these things at all but I imagine the vast, vast majority of
people even on the internet much less in the world much less in the
United States have no idea what Wikimania is, even if they may
possibly have heard of Wikipedia.
Well actually there are enough people who know about wikimania to try
to register the .eu domain name.
Plus if they tried to register the .eu domain name, that also mean
they begun registering the trademark somehow since this is a necessary
step to get the .eu
So basically, people already use it for means that are contrary to our
objectives and our image. Please don't answer me it's no big deal.
Because I am sorry, but it's very big deal.
If it's such a big deal now, why was it not a big deal when we first
began using the name? Were there other important domain names that were
neglected?
At least it means that you really would have to
re-think completely
about our strategy...
when some book publisher will begin editing "wikimania books" or
"wikimania tshirts" and will try to shut us down because of trademark
law... what will you say ?
And what will be the effects of having the proper US registrations? ...
or have these been neglected too?
And since our next wikimania will be at Harvard Law
School... what
will you do when the WMF will have to explain it was not even able to
secure the domain name of its main public event?
Harvard is still in the United States. Why should the .eu domain or
European trademarks affect that. It may be a factor for the next time
that the conference is in an EU country, but not for this one. That
gives us more time to sort it out.
I don't want to say that it's not possible to
keep the name
wikimania... but pretending that it's no big deal is not realistic!
If there's still any reasonable possibility at all, why should we be so
willing to give up before the battle even starts.
As an aside,
wikimania.org vs.
wikimania2006.org -- if someone is
looking for our Wikimania, they will see that they have the wrong
site, plop what they want into google, and immediately find the
correct site. That's how I cope with typosquatting and things of that
nature, and a lot of other sites work that way.
And please, explaining that you "cope" with typosquatting is nonsense.
We're talking about a manifestation that will take place at Harvard
Law School and that is likely to be our main event for the year to
come. Many people will come to know us through this, and many more
people are going to judge us through this.
Including over our willingness to take a stand for something.
So if you want to keep the wikimania name, do it but
give me solutions
for these people !
That really depends on how far they have gone, and why they are doing
it. I understand that it may be a few days before that can be
answered. Clearly our objections should be formally recorded.including
our history of using the name.
And explain me why not simply call it
"wikiconf", "wikitruc",
"wikimeeting" or "wikiwhatever". Then, we could make a proper
registration on the tm and the domain names so that we will be able to
secure and keep it safe so that the community can go on using it for
years?
There are obviously some who would find that more convenient.
Because that's the thing : if we fuck up with
this, it's the community
we're building everyday that will get fucked up with someone who will
own the trademark and the domain names of the work of this community.
It's our job to make sure that this name will stay available forever
for the community and that no one will ever try to make it his own.
So come on... don't explain me that people will simply use google to
find the good wikimania website ! Even local French Linux Groups are
better organized than this !
This last part seems more like dramatic flourish.
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