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On 06/01/17 02:21, Rich Freeman wrote: |
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> On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 8:34 PM, M. J. Everitt <m.j.everitt@×××.org> wrote: |
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>> Out of interest, what proportion of the current 'staff'/developer list |
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>> is actually US-resident? Would it better serve the distro, since most of |
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>> the devs *I* know are domiciled in Europe, for instance .. to be |
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>> elsewhere? Particularly if the US as a country is becoming more hostile |
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>> to other countries?! |
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>> |
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> Certainly we have more outside the US than inside, and there is more |
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> European concentration. |
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> |
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> However, I'd stop and consider what the purpose of the Foundation is: |
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> |
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> 1. Pay bills (which I think could be done no matter where we're based). |
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> 2. Hold our trademarks and copyrights. |
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> |
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> For the latter there is a HUGE advantage to being in the US, because |
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> the US has a very long reach when it comes to enforcement. Whether |
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> you consider that a good thing or a bad thing, it works in our favor |
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> to have US copyrights and trademarks. Copyleft is only as good as |
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> your copyright enforcement. In a perfect world perhaps there might |
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> not be copyright (depending on your views), but copyleft turns this on |
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> its head, and ironically makes stronger copyright laws work to make |
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> copyleft even stronger. |
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> |
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> So, if somebody abuses our Trademarks we can threaten to have them |
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> excluded from virtually every social media site and search engine on |
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> the planet, and of course the US works hard to export its IP laws to |
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> the rest of the world. |
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> |
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> Again, this isn't meant to suggest that US policy is a good thing |
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> overall for everybody. I'm just saying that it works out in our favor |
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> in this case. If we're going to bother to have trademarks then we |
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> might as well retain the ability to enforce them. |
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> |
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> All that said, there is no reason the bills couldn't be paid from |
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> another organization. One of the benefits of a consolidated |
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> leadership is that I think it would make it easier to have different |
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> legal entities operated almost like sub-projects, or a relationship |
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> with an umbrella organization like SPI. I'm not really advocating |
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> making changes like that right now. |
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> |
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Ok, so bearing all that Really Useful (sarcasm 50/50 here..) information |
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in mind .. under what level of threat is the Gentoo copyright and |
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imagery really under?! I know you're a US citizen, and of course these |
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things become very dear to ones heart, much like owning guns, and must |
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be defended under all possible circumstances (forgive me if I'm going |
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off on too much of a tangent here ...) |
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|
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I think the final paragraph is something that probably should be |
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considered in the longer term. Particularly if modernisation of Gentoo's |
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structures does take hold, and the potential for better accountability |
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and protection for our European developers (UK currently will shortly |
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end up a special case thanks to its ignorant electorate) becomes a |
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viable possibility. |
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|
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I confess not to be an expert on international organisations, but I |
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think this could be a valuable opportunity to think a little bit more |
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outside the proverbial box, and build Gentoo as a distro and |
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organisation better fit for the 21st and future centuries... |
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