Slashdot Mirror

Actually, we want the reverse that; we want to transfer the TM to a non-profit trust (potentially HLT) that will grant us license to continue to use the name in perpetuity. The official press release is at http://www.liblime.com/ptfsliblime-granted-provisional-use-of-koha-trademark-in-new-zealand.

Basically a company who has extended and NOT given back to the community is now wanting the trademark the name of the Open Source product.

If LibLime has distributed Koha binaries, but not source, they have violated its Copyleft license, which is much more serious than a trademark dispute. Is there any evidence they've done so? LibLime's FAQ says

Q. LibLime Koha is open-source software; doesn’t that mean it’s free?
A. Yes, LibLime Koha is open source and so LibLime Koha is free, in fact you can download it yourself from a number of sites, including here. LibLime is an open source support company and we were established in 2005 to work with libraries that wish to run LibLime Koha but do not have the internal resources to manage a system.
LibLime offers the following services:
-Professional project management for your LibLime Koha implementation
-Set up and implementation of your LibLime Koha instance
-LibLime Koha Training
-Migration of legacy data
-Hosting and support (help desk and online ticketing system)

Project to add a somewhat specialized encoding to libiconv at the LibLime ideas page: http://wiki.liblime.com/doku.php?id=googlesummerof codeideas#add_marc-8_support_to_libiconv There are a lot of libraries out there that would really appreciate that one :-).

Project to add a somewhat specialized encoding to libiconv at the LibLime ideas page: http://wiki.liblime.com/doku.php?id=googlesummerof codeideas#add_marc-8_support_to_libiconv There are a lot of libraries out there that would really appreciate that one :-).

There is at least one company that well provide support, Liblime. I find the whole "we need support" argument many make a but of a cop out covering the fear of change though. Especially considering the amount of money the proprietary ILS vendor's give the average customer for the support they actually provide. In many (most?) cases, these fees can easily cover your costs for a local developer or consultant.

That's why organizations/resources like Linux in Libraries exist. They are working for putting Linux in public spaces. There are a number of cool projects that this group has pointed me to including Koha, an open source library system and implementers of open source library solutions like LibLime. Check them out.

Well the good news is that Koha does have vendor support now from LibLime. LibLime provides full vendor services on open source including migration assistance, staff training, and software maintenance and support.

You definitely want Koha (www.koha.org). For Koha support, and special flavors: LibLime (www.liblime.com) and for even more library goodness, Keystone (http://www.indexdata.dk/keystone/).