Chad Smith wrote:
So now you are going to send the government after me if I don't change
the
site? This is bullshit.
No, but this is exactly the sort of attitude and over-the-top rhetoric
to which I was referring.
If anyone ever clicked on the make a donation button - I would have
deducted
my cost and then given the extra to OOo - or used it to promote OOo.
I have
donated directly, monetarily to OOo and other Open Source projects in the
past. And, from a legal standpoint - the disclaimer at the top of the
page
is plenty, in and of itself, for a defence against anyone who wants to
sue
me. I have the same button on all of my sites that I put up at my own
expense. So far, none of them have been used. But if someone wants
to give
- they can feel free. That button didn't cost me anything, so I
figured why
not. Ever heard of "GiveBobaDollar.com"? There is nothing illegal about
letting people give you money.
Look., Chad, I'm an attorney. This is what I do for a living. I'm not
going to give you legal advice because I'm not sure where you live, and
I'm guessing that I'm not licensed in that particular jurisdiction
(unless it happens to be Michigan, USA, in which case . . . give me a
call!). But I will tell you what I know in general about these kinds of
issues.
There is a valid claim for an intellectual property right infringement
if your work, product, logo, etc. resembles that of another closely
enough that a reasonable person could confuse your work as having been
produced by someone else. Now that the logo has been removed, you are in
somewhat of a gray area on this one. With the logo there, however, you
were very, very close to being in jeopardy of a legitimate complaint.
The disclaimer is one factor that you could use to defend, but it's not
dispositive. The only thing that would be dispositive is if you had
written permission from someone with the authority to give it to
duplicate the look and feel of the site; I am unclear from reading this
thread thus far to determine whether or not that is what you are
claiming. What I am saying--and I want to be very clear on this--is that
you are possibly (not certainly, not probably, not definitely . . . just
possibly) still "too close" to pass muster because it's arguable that a
reasonable person could confuse your site with an "official" OOo site,
and that's something you should keep in mind. I am trying to help you
here because I don't want you to get into trouble. Furthermore, I think
it's silly that we waste our time on this stuff and if you just made
some minor changes to the point that your site is more easily
distinguishable, that particular problem would go away.
As far as the button goes, again, I am trying to help you here. Even
after your statement above, I'm still not clear where money that is
"donated" goes. Does it go to you, or does it go to the OOo project? You
have a site that has duplicated the look/feel of the OOo official site.
Your site promotes the OOo project. It's got all kinds of links all
around the "Make a Donation" button to OpenOffice.org official sites. A
reasonable person would think that you are collecting donations for the
OOo project with the "Make a Donation" button. That was my impression at
first, and as I said, I'm still not clear on whether or not that's the
case. I'm not saying you need to take it off. I'm saying that for your
own good you need to make it clear where the money goes. The ideal
solution would be to do one of the following:
1. Put text under the button that says "Donations defray the costs
associated with the 'WhatIsOpenOffice.org' website, and are not
tax-deductible. To make donations to the OpenOffice.org project, click
here" with a link to http://contributing.openoffice.org/donate.html.
2. Instead of putting the button on the main page, put it on a separate
"Donations" page, and replace the main page button with a link to the
"Donations" page. Then, on the "Donations" page, explain where the money
goes, that donations are not tax-deductible, and how to donate to
OpenOffice.org, and include the button on this page.
But, good god - if you want to sue me because eric got his panties in
a wad
because I didn't kiss his ass for making a yet-unseen Mac-native
version of
OpenOffice.org - bring it on.
Nobody is threatening to sue you or send the government after you or
anything else. What I am trying to do is help you stay out of trouble,
in spite of yourself. I'm doing you a favor. The proper response would
be "Thank you" and not "THIS IS BULLSHIT!"
I have no idea who eric is. But I think you'll see that I've already
disagreed with a lot of his criticism of your site. Nevertheless, you do
have some potential liability here that you might want to avoid.
Honestly, Chad, you seem to be creating a lot of your own problems. Calm
down. Take a deep breath. Get the ego back on the leash. And read what
I've said above objectively.
--
Steven Shelton
Twilight Media & Design
www.TwilightMD.com
www.GLOAMING.us
-=-=-=-=-
Some people are like Slinkies ... not really good for anything, but you can't help smiling when you see one tumble down the stairs.
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