[WikiEN-l] Firefox (was Re: Wikipedia: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly, Dec 2007))

[Andrew Gray]

On 21/10/2007, Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org> wrote:
> On 10/21/07, Oldak Quill <oldakquill at gmail.com> wrote:
> > If there is something we could do to encourage O'Reilly to relicense
> > the book in a free manner (they have a history of doing so, I think I
> > read), it would be worth doing. I don't think attempting to block them
> > using "Wikipedia" would achieve this and would cast us in a bad light
> > (a free/open project using trademark law to stop our name being used).
> >
> I think it comes down to whether or not there's a legal case or not.
> Would it cast us in a bad light to use copyright law to stop our
> content from being used in a proprietary work?  Why should trademark
> law be any different?

Let me get this straight. You want the Wikimedia Foundation - a body
which exists  to promote the existence and spread of learning and the
provision of information - to use trademark law to dictate the terms
on which someone is to be permitted to write about it?

I honestly cannot understand in what way this seems to be a good idea.
There's a *reason* that even the most legally avaricious of
corporations don't start rattling sabres when people write such books,
and it's not because they didn't think of the idea.

-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk