Mozilla vs Debian Analyzed

lisah writes "Linux.com has a behind the scenes look at the history of the ongoing debates between Debian and Mozilla that predate Debian's last release, Sarge. The article also reports the issue may have been laid to rest for good now that Debian tentatively plans on calling it "Iceweasel" but attorney Larry Rosen said this never should have been a debate in the first place. In addition, Mozilla has been prompted to clarify its position on the company's marketing blog."

Comments

Jesus Fucking Christ

[BeeBeard]

I'm posting anonymously because I don't feel like being polite to you. The levels of arrogance and ignorance you just displayed is all the evidence I need to forgo niceties. I read your post and it was like reading the ramblings of a fucking crazy person.

First you claim this:

A lot of American corporate lawyers want to cause confusion between copyright and trademark law, by putting them both under the umbrella of "Intellectual Property", something which does not exist in law.

This just gets funnier every time I read it. I guess my first reaction was "Who the fuck are you?" That you would claim that IP doesn't exist is laughable. If you read the article you'll notice that it includes quotes from Larry Rosen, a well-known IP lawyer. Please email Mr. Rosen to tell him that his profession doesn't exist.

You go on:

Copyright and Trademarks are two entirely separate things.

I would like to introduce you to Jim. Jim here is Associate Manager of the Department of No Fucking Shit, Sherlock. Interestingly, do you know who originally confused the two? Fucking Debian is who--some asshole coder who thought he knew more about the law than lawyers decided it would be reasonable to confuse the two, and Debian's petty "stance" was borne.

Mozilla have a right to put whatever restrictions they like on the use of their trademarks, whatever license the code is released under.

This is a truthful but completely meaningless statement. Jim would like to talk to you about it.

Debian can call it IceWeasel (or even something less derogatory-sounding, if they so choose), but copyright and the MPL license mean that they can still use the code.

More meaningless filler that anybody who's been reading Slashdot for the last few weeks could have written. Jim is not pleased.

Then you wrote this glistening turd:

The big issue here, is that confusion about copyright vs trademarks is the result of a deliberate ploy by corporate America to confuse the public about "Intellectual Property" (IP) and "IP Rights" (IPR)

You made this all bold and everything, presumably because you thought it was important to do so. But I'm just stunned--your ignorance and failure is so astounding. Here's a shocker for you: the fucking "public" have no say or interest in this whatsoever, certainly not enough to even have "confusion" about copyrights vs. trademarks. It's a firm distinction that exists in the law (you know, in the field you think doesn't exist), and I daresay the distinction exists in the minds of this public you pretend to care so much about.

Perform this simple fucking test: Ask somebody of average intelligence over 40 years old which they think is copyrighted and which they think is trademarked, the Nike Swoosh or the contents of the newest Grisham novel?

So here's you, you pretended to have your thumb to the pulse of the "people" (whoever these fucking non-Debian dimwits might be) and claimed that there's some kind of fucking conspiracy afoot by Corporate America--and by Corporate America I think you mean companies who would dare diminish themselves and insult their customers by actually charging for their products. Oh exclamation point!

Again, where did this confusion occur, the one you think Corporate America created to confuse people who don't exist about what goes down in a field of law you think doesn't exist? It started in the mind of a non-lawyer coder who decided to start some shit with Mozilla because he didn't like the fact that Mozilla wanted to approve sloppy Debian patches before they went out.

Leave it to a Slashdot poster to pretend to know more about the law than fucking lawyers.

Re:Summary

[A beautiful mind]

Yay! Finally someone has a viable plan to kill that abomination they call Gnome. You made my day dude!