Logo War: Red Hat Takes On DataPortability

[Duvelle Jones]

I will be quite honest here. From what I can tell I think that it is a
little disappoint that Red Hat had to go an flex their lawyer might
against DataPortability in what can be considered here as a coincidence.
That said, I think that maybe Fedora might be in a position lend a hand
to the scenario, since two things that I noticed as a read up on the
C&D.
1) They seem very considerate to what happened.
2) There seems to be bad blood from them to us.

But that is just a wild thought in the mist of it all. Even so, I will
agree with John here, as unfortunate as it is, this seems to be a
Working Group that it trying to pull some honourable work. 
On Fri, 2008-02-22 at 10:45 +0300, John Babich wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 7:48 AM, Rahul Sundaram
> <sundaram at fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> >  Note: I have no other source of information on this and haven't verified
> >  the claims. Just passing on information.
> >
> Here's my mini-investigation:
> 
> First of all, I am not a lawyer (IANAL). I am reading this as a person
> who is an unpaid volunteer with one group (Fedora Project at
> www.fedoraproject.org), who is trying to understand the motivations of
> another group of individuals (DataPortability at
> www.dataportability.org).
> 
> How do I go about doing this?
> 
> 1. I read their charter at
> http://groups.google.com/group/dataportability-public/web/charter.
> 2. I read the aforementioned forums at
> http://groups.google.com/group/dataportabilityactionsteering
> and http://groups.google.com/group/dataportability-public.
> 3. I see their affiliation with Identity Commons (IDC). More
> information on IDC is available at http://wiki.idcommons.net.
> 4. I see that the Data Portability Group is in the process of
> organizing itself as an officially recognized working group within ID
> Commons.
> 
> My conclusion is that this is a well-intentioned group of men and
> women who just happened to pick a logo similar to the Fedora logo. No
> malice or intentional confusion is intended, and some in the group
> would be more than happy to adopt another logo.
> 
> One individual decided to publicize the "cease-and-desist" letter from
> Red Hat. I understand that Red Hat must protect its logos and
> trademarks from infringement. All major companies must do the same
> thing.
> 
> I hope cooler heads prevail. I actually agree with the aims of the ID
> Commons and Data Portability Group. I wish them all the best. I might
> even join.
>