On 09/03/2009, at 2:14 AM, Damien Katz wrote:
To date I have had a 'Built with CouchDB' link on every page.
Unfortunately, having a company called CouchDB Ltd, at couchdb.com
turns that link into an advertisement for a competitor to our
consultancy and development business in this space - specifically,
the space defined by our use of CouchDB (albeit a branch version).
We feel this way because co-opting the name and domain name for a
consultancy business is a form of implicit endorsement, so we will
no longer be including such a link, nor promoting CouchDB. This
will be an ongoing problem, because simply mentioning the name
advertises a competitor. C'est la vie.
You should link to couchdb.apache.org, that's the official Apache
project website. The couchdb.org couchdb.net and couchdb.com
redirects are just convenience.
I see that the underlying issue might be resolved, and I note that Jan
and Chris are acting in good faith.
Just to address this particular response however - in a commercial
context, it's the name that is at issue. Our links were to
couchdb.apache.org, but users seeing 'CouchDB' will regard a company
called 'CouchDB Ltd' as the authoritative source of expertise. Add the
fact that two of the principles are commiters, and authors of the
book, and there's just too much commercial advantage arrayed against
us for us to take the risk. The domain name issue (couchdb.com) is
related to that.
We would like to see couchdb.{com,.org,.net} be permanent redirects to
couchdb.apache.org, and Chris and Jan et al competing without the
benefit of the Name.
BYW, the reason this is such an issue is because I can imaging the
CouchDB having significant brand identification.
Antony Blakey
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