Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
Ernest Miller's blog postings can also be found @ Copyfight LawMeme
Feel free to contact me about articles, websites and etc. you think I may find of interest. I'm also available for consulting work and speaking engagements. Email: ernest.miller 8T gmail.com
There are a number of trademark problems for the open-source browser Firefox, according to a report in ZD Net Australia, some of which have to do with the interplay between trademark and open source (Firefox Faces Trademark Squabble).
Note that this technique of having a strict trademark policy for an open source application is more common than the Debian folks realize. That is, how do you have any meaningful quality control with open source software? One way is to have a trademark clause that says if you modify and redistribute the code, you can't call it X (fill in what it's officially distributed as). You're welcome to distribute official versions of the software as X, but modified versions are no longer officially X.
This is possible (and allowable even under GPL) as it is trademark law, not copyright, which is what the licenses hinge on.
Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
Ernest Miller's blog postings can also be found @
1. joe on June 16, 2005 01:32 PM writes...
Note that this technique of having a strict trademark policy for an open source application is more common than the Debian folks realize. That is, how do you have any meaningful quality control with open source software? One way is to have a trademark clause that says if you modify and redistribute the code, you can't call it X (fill in what it's officially distributed as). You're welcome to distribute official versions of the software as X, but modified versions are no longer officially X.
This is possible (and allowable even under GPL) as it is trademark law, not copyright, which is what the licenses hinge on.
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