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Author: Peter Duffy
Date:  
To: devuan-dev
Subject: Re: [devuan-dev] granting authorization for Devuan developers to use Debian trademark
On Thu, 2022-08-11 at 18:58 +0900, Olaf Meeuwissen wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Daniel Pocock writes:
>
> > On 10/08/2022 18:44, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> >
> > > let me contrast this with
> > > https://www.debian.org/News/2021/20211117
> > > which appears to be Debian's statement disavowing Daniel Pocock.
> > >
> > > Not sure what to conclude from this.
> >
> > I resigned from some of my roles in free software organizations at
> > a
> > time when I lost two family members
> >
> > Normal people expressed sympathy and support.  There are some
> > people
> > around Debian who have a very unhealthy lifestyle, they don't have
> > a job
> > or family at all, they spend all day on social media posting
> > defamation
> > like that.
> >
> > Nonetheless, you can go to swissreg.ch and see that I really own
> > the
> > trademark.
> >
> > The document on the WIPO web site is 11 pages but only this one
> > line
> > matters:
> >
> > "After the Complaint was filed, the Software Freedom Institute SA
> > filed
> > an application on May 14, 2022 for Swiss trademark registration
> > number
> > 782335 for DEBIAN, which was registered on June 8, 2022, specifying
> > computer software and hardware in class 9. *That trademark
> > registration
> > remains current ...*"
> >
> > You can print a copy of my blog, print a copy of the statement from
> > swissreg.ch and keep them.  Even if I get hit by a bus, if you
> > register
> > a debian.something domain today, you will be able to keep the
> > domain
> > using my documents as proof.
> >
> > If the Debian lawyers somehow cancel my trademark then any domains
> > registered after that day will be questionable.  Any domains
> > registered
> > today are valid and you get to keep them.  Go for it.
> >
> > I just noticed that nobody has registered devuan.community - don't
> > wait!
>
> I guess that's in relation to https://debian.community ...
>
> As Hendrik, I'm also not sure what to make of this ...
> --
> Olaf Meeuwissen
> _______________________________________________



Likewise. 

I've read some of the posts on both sides, and it just seems to be a
six-of-one, half-a-dozen-of-the-other deadlock.

Whenever I come across these disputes in the context of open-source
software, I wonder if there should be some kind of third-party
arbitration body, guaranteed to be impartial (although how to achieve
that is anybody's guess), who would listen to both sides and pronounce
judgement. For clever people to spend their time in slanging matches,
rather than developing and improving software, just seems such a waste
of effort and resource :(