Seems to me this speaks to a broader problem in which Corporate America, and Trademarks such as Jerry Falwell's become exempt from everyday citizens abilities to practice free speech. Where does one draw the line at protecting a company from unfair Trademark infringement that means to subvert business, and allowing anyone to Trademark their "cause" and undermine everyday citizens from speaking out.
What if George Bush where to trademarked his name? What percentage of Slashdot and other internet sites would fall under trademark infringement? That kind of case would be an obvious attempt to undermine free speech because it involved a member of the government. But in an era when corporations that own media dictate much of American attitude and voting decisions, how can we permit protection of "soapbox" trademarks.
But instead if continue a thread of stating the obvious, and venting our frustrations over the erosion of our civil rights, what can we as the Slashdot community do in these cases. Does anyone know whom we can collectively write or call in our government when we see such injustice? If for every one of these issues that gets posted on Slashdot, a Senator or Judge got a call or email from hundreds of upset people in their district, we might actually write some of these wrongs we all fume about...
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.nature.com/earthsciences/index.html
AND I guess NASA is full of "non-experts":
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/inde
And Scientific American must be crap too:
http://www.sciam.com/search/index.cfm?QT=Q&SCC=Q&
gee.. Im so relieved!!!
Seems to me this speaks to a broader problem in which Corporate America, and Trademarks such as Jerry Falwell's become exempt from everyday citizens abilities to practice free speech. Where does one draw the line at protecting a company from unfair Trademark infringement that means to subvert business, and allowing anyone to Trademark their "cause" and undermine everyday citizens from speaking out.
What if George Bush where to trademarked his name? What percentage of Slashdot and other internet sites would fall under trademark infringement? That kind of case would be an obvious attempt to undermine free speech because it involved a member of the government. But in an era when corporations that own media dictate much of American attitude and voting decisions, how can we permit protection of "soapbox" trademarks.
But instead if continue a thread of stating the obvious, and venting our frustrations over the erosion of our civil rights, what can we as the Slashdot community do in these cases. Does anyone know whom we can collectively write or call in our government when we see such injustice? If for every one of these issues that gets posted on Slashdot, a Senator or Judge got a call or email from hundreds of upset people in their district, we might actually write some of these wrongs we all fume about...
A real world Slashdot effect!