Guido at Google

[russnelson@gmail.com]

Re: Guido at Google

Steve Holden wrote:
[color=blue]
> Far answers to this and all other (as far as I can determine)
> hypothetical questions please refer to the license.[/color]

But note that no OSI certified open source license will grant the right
to use a trademark. You gain trademark rights by having control over
the quality of the described quantity. If you give up control (which
the OSD requires), you cannot grant the right to use the trademark, or,
if you do, then you will lose the ability to enforce the trademark.

In the case of derived names like JPython, or IronPython, the PSF would
have to claim in court that "everyone knows that Python is only and
exactly Python, and that anything with prefixes or suffixes may be
derived from the PSF-copyrighted work, but is not an official product
of the PSF." That's reasonable, but harder to prove than insisting
that no computer language may contain Python in its name without being
the PSF-copyrighted work.

[Steve Holden]

Re: Guido at Google

russnelson@gmai l.com wrote:[color=blue]
> Steve Holden wrote:
>
>[color=green]
>>Far answers to this and all other (as far as I can determine)
>>hypothetica l questions please refer to the license.[/color]
>
>
> But note that no OSI certified open source license will grant the right
> to use a trademark. You gain trademark rights by having control over
> the quality of the described quantity. If you give up control (which
> the OSD requires), you cannot grant the right to use the trademark, or,
> if you do, then you will lose the ability to enforce the trademark.
>[/color]
If by "the OSD" you are referring to the open source definition at

http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php

there is nothing in there about trademarks referring to open source
technology. Python is released under an OSI-approved license, but the
Python Software Foundation owns and retains the rights to the Python
trademark.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC www.holdenweb.com
PyCon TX 2006 www.python.org/pycon/

[Steve Holden]

Re: Herds of cats

Alex Martelli wrote:
[...][color=blue]
> Still, I'm not disputing that CA "got screwed"... though it looks like
> they did it to themselves -- they didn't stop to consider the need to
> WOO developers to actually get them onboard as a part of the overall
> deal, just sort of assumed they "came with the package"!-) Bad people
> management must be close to the #1 cause of failure of promising mergers
> and acquisitions (and I'm not sure the qualifying part of this sentence,
> after "failure", is needed;)...
>[/color]
In fact one might argue that the poor management of traditional
software development efforts is one of the main reasons why open source
continues to become so popular. One can develop software without having
to deal with pointy-haired types.

Ultimately this will, I suspect, lead to wider appreciation of how
software development can be better organised in a commercial context (as
it appears may already be the case at Google). *Then* I might start to
get interested in management as a career :-)

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC www.holdenweb.com
PyCon TX 2006 www.python.org/pycon/

[John J. Lee]

Re: Guido at Google

Robert Kern <robert.kern@gm ail.com> writes:
[...][color=blue]
> No, it's not a silly idea. Dean Baker, the Co-Director the Center for Economic
> and Policy Research, has proposed for the U.S. government to establish a
> Software Developer's Corps. For $2 billion per year, it could fund about 20,000
> developers to make open source software. Much of that software would be directly
> usable by local, state, and federal governments and thus pay back some, all, or
> more of the investment (Dean estimates more). In addition, the general public
> also benefits directly.
>
> http://www.cepr.net/publications/windows_2005_10.pdf[/color]

Given the current balance of power in the USA government, I assume
this proposal is aimed at >= 2008 ;-)


John