Re: [gentoo-nfp] Re: [gentoo-project] Merging Trustees and Council / Developers and Foundation

[Rich Freeman]

On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 9:29 PM, M. J. Everitt <m.j.everitt@×××.org> wrote:
>
> Ok, so bearing all that Really Useful (sarcasm 50/50 here..) information
> in mind .. under what level of threat is the Gentoo copyright and
> imagery really under?! I know you're a US citizen, and of course these
> things become very dear to ones heart, much like owning guns, and must
> be defended under all possible circumstances (forgive me if I'm going
> off on too much of a tangent here ...)
>

I'm not offended at all.  I don't suggest we go enforcing our
trademarks for the sake of doing so, but you have to ask, why even
have them if you can't forsee any circumstance where you'd try to
enforce them, except perhaps defensively?  And if defensive IP is your
concern then that is an even bigger reason to have it in the US,
because the long arm of the US can beat on us even if we don't try to
have any legal presence in the US.  Getting ourselves blacklisted from
Google isn't going to help our popularity.

If you can think of a situation where you'd want to enforce them, then
it only makes sense to make them as enforceable as possible so that
you're not creating work for yourself when you go to do it.  And since
we have a US trademark maintaining it is relatively straightforward.

The main benefit of a trademark is protecting your "brand."  So, when
somebody represents themselves as Gentoo and is distributing something
inferior, we can ask them nicely to stop and not so nicely if they
don't, that way our reputation isn't tarnished by what they're
distributing.  That could be bad code, or even just "bad vibes"
(somebody claiming to be a part of Gentoo is harassing people/etc and
it is coming back to us).

There is nothing that prevents us from having a light touch, but if
somebody really is creating problems for us it is better to have more
options than less.  We can always ask nicely or choose to
ignore/sanction before we start sending cease and desist letters.

> I think the final paragraph is something that probably should be
> considered in the longer term. Particularly if modernisation of Gentoo's
> structures does take hold, and the potential for better accountability
> and protection for our European developers (UK currently will shortly
> end up a special case thanks to its ignorant electorate) becomes a
> viable possibility.

I completely support having foreign legal entities if they provide
some benefit and somebody is actually willing to do the work needed to
sustain them (and assuming we can afford it if it costs money).
However, for as hard as it is for us to stay on top of the US
paperwork, from what I understand the US is actually one of the easier
countries to incorporate in.

When it comes to the financial side of things I really don't have a
super-strong personal opinion as to where we should be based.  I think
it should be wherever makes the most sense.  It probably shouldn't try
to chase wherever the latest board members happen to live.

If we're going to bother having trademarks and copyrights, then I do
think that it makes sense to at least hold them in the US, though that
doesn't preclude holding them in other places as well.

-- 
Rich