On Jul 22, 2008, Antonio Olivares <olivares14031@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> What if you found that offensive and denigrating? > Whether I find it offensive or denigrating does not matter. It doesn't matter if people call *you* by an offensive, demeaning name?!? You just don't mind? >> What if you kid's colleagues at school started calling him by a >> demeaning name? > I would encourage my kid to be strong minded with courage to > confront all of the people, a name or nickname has never been a bad > thing, So you'd encourage your kid to stand up for himself, and confront those who offend him? > I tell the kids should not do it, but if they do to fight back and > call the other guy names as well. What does the guy feel. It is ok > for him to call my kid names but not the other way around. I don't > think so. *nod* > It is different because we are talking about an operating system > that would have been nothing had Linus Torvalds not build that > kernel back in 1991. Except that GNU was already used and Hurd was under development. And where wouuld Linux be in 1992, 1994, 1997, etc, if GNU hadn't been there? > Yes without the GNU tools in place, the kernel would have been > nothing as well, but that should not be the issue. I can give you > many examples of one thing needing another so that they could > mutually exist. Exactly. But if they relied on (*) each other, how can it be right ot name it after only one of them? (*) needing is too strong, each could have eventually find other parties to live with or grown into it. >> Just because they invented the name? > That does not give them any rights whatsover, but if the name > becomes famous they can patent it or copyright it. Heh. Another victim of the confusing "intellectual property" term :-) It's not possible to patent or to copyright a short name. That kind of power is reserved for trademarks, a completely different and unrelated set of regulations and laws. > That way the name is used properly and the way they wanted it to be > used. Trademark law is not about making sure a name is used properly, it's about making sure it is not used improperly, which is not quite the same. E.g., you can't demand one to use your trademark on a product you'd like one to, but in certain cases you can demand one to stop using it on a product you don't approve of. > Whether that is right or wrong? That is another call! Indeed. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ Free Software Evangelist oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org} FSFLA Board Member ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org} -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list