>
> This is very interesting, this "Open Source Legal Resolution".... ;-)
>
Indeed it is.
The thing I find most interesting, and a bit scary, is the way people
seem to pick sides.
For example - "vermin", "scum", "obscure", are just a few of the words
recently used to describe the likes of NuSphere. (And to the surprise of
many, including myself, that includes our beloved Mr. DuBois.) And
people base their opinions on what!? The statements of the opposing
party.
Did people verify the claims of MySQL and NuSphere? Was there an
agreement? Was it, indeed, interim? Is a termination sent by fax even
legal? Does MySQL even hold the US trademarks? (Answer: No, not yet as
far as the online trademark searchengine is concerned - their
application is "in the mail".)
An open conflict like this is indeed "interesting", but people have
based and will be basing their opinions on a distorted or incomplete
picture of the whole conflict, because by nature, statements by two
fighting parties are biased and should not be trusted until verfied
true. This is a dangerous game to play, and the side with the best PR
team / largest fanbase will always win the favor of the public. (See:
Microsoft product sales figures.)
Accepting that NuSphere employees are the spawn of the devil just
because MySQL (or anyone else) says they are is not something I'm
prepared to do. Where I live people are innocent until *proven* guilty,
and so far there has been little real proof. Just both sides of a story,
but little proof that can be easily verified by 3rd parties.
Don't get me wrong here. The fact that there is a conflict at all means
that someone, somewhere did something wrong. But it is most likely not a
simple case of a good guy / bad guy.
I just hope that people can post their comments in a rational way,
without jumping to conclusions too fast. (Just what Mr. DuBois said a
few posts back.)
And about the domain - I think that MySQLs claim on the .ORG domain is a
lot weaker then they want us to believe. (no US trademark YET, no
attempt to gain control of the .NET and .ORG for the past years with the
excuse 'friendly' people controlled them, etc) BUT, I still think that
NuSphere should give it up. For the following reasons:
1) It was just launched, it does most likely not have a real large
userbase yet, so changing it now would be relatively simple and cheap.
2) It is confusing. (The .COM/.ORG stuff)
3) Someday soon, MySQL will probably be granted their US trademarks, and
when that happens it will be pried out of their hands. Since we're
talking about a non-profit site, the fees that NuSphere is going to have
to pay to lawyers to defend themselves would basically a waste of money.
Is the .ORG domain worth that much to NuSphere?
4) It pisses off MySQL AB. Clearly it's in their best interest to be
friends with MySQL AB.
5) Although MySQLs pressrelease (on MySQL.COM, Slashdot, etc) telling
people NOT to visit MySQL.ORG probably had the effect that the site had
more visitors then ever before (*1), it still was in a somewhat negative
way they came to that site. Getting rid of the domain might get rid of
some nasty memories of some potential clients.
(*1 - who wouldn't want to see a real obscure website?! I only went to
see MySQL.ORG after I saw MySQL AB's pressrelease. And with that thing
posted on slashdot, my bet is that MySQL.ORG had a truckload of traffic
most starting websites would be jealous of.)
And last -
6) IMHO, two MySQL community sites is one too many. Why don't you guys
play together? NuSphere stated they wanted to create a non-profit site,
maybe ran by a 3rd party. MySQL AB said they wanted to expand their
MySQL site. If you take a few steps back from this conflict then I'd see
no reason not to cooperate. But then again, that's just me and my ?0.02
-S
