🚀 go-pugleaf

Ronald writes:
   someone wrote:
   >   FSF and the GNU Project request that you ask us (via
   >   gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu) before designating a program as "GNU"
   >   something-or-other.  It's the right thing to do and will avoid a lot
   >   of confusion later on.

   Is this really different from AT&T and Apple requesting that we ask
   them before using windows and/or mice?

Yes, it's something completely different.  Windows and mice provide
functionality.  "gnu", like "AT&T" and "Apple", is just a name.

   ...it's up to lawyers to define 'right thing to do'.

No, it's up to individuals to decide the right thing for themselves to
do, and it's up to legislators (on behalf of individuals) to define
what things are wrong for anyone to do.  What's up to lawyers and the
courts is just determining exactly how the laws should be interpreted.

  Is the difference that FSF is "requesting" while the other guys are
  "demanding"?

Well, if we were comparing the names "gnu" and "AT&T", then yes: the
difference is simply that the large corporations have registered their
trademarks, and the FSF hasn't bothered.

   It seems that if the FSF starts claiming the phrase 'gnu' perhaps AT&T
   will start claiming other phrases in the names of programs, like
   'cat', 'tar', 'awk', etc...; and it would end up causing great
   confusion if 'gawk' had to be renamed because it has the phrase 'awk'
   in it.

First of all, I think AT&T long ago agreed not to claim these names,
or POSIX would never have used them.

Also, "gnu" is used to describe a suite of programs, and is
therefore more on a par with, say, "BSD" than "cat", or other
individual program names.

   Ron

--
Al Petrofsky
sono!al@sun.com (through August 9)
alpetrof@ocf.berkeley.edu