/* HINT: Search archives @ http://www.indyramp.com/masq/ before posting! */ Hey Everyone, Sorry for the email here but I need you help ASAP! Below, you will see an email from a company that is potentially coming after me for the name TrinityOS for their new Linux distribution. PLEASE UNDERSTAND that they haven't made any hard nosed or malicious notions towards me but I need to cover my butt here. What I would like from you: If you've been a long time TrinityOS user, please try to dig up the OLDEST copy of TrinityOS you have (be it in digital or printed form) and please email me that you have it and the date of it. >From here, I plan on trying get the name TrinityOS both copyrighted and trade marked so people can't take it from me in the future. BUT REMEMBER: I still plan on GPL'ing TrinityOS and putting it on the LDP to keep it free. I'm not trying to make money here but I don't want some company to take the TrinityOS name away from me and/or dilute its good name. So, again, if I could ask a favor, PLEASE do some digging and let me know what you find. Ok? PS. If YOU any of your friends have any experience with issues like this, patent/copyright law, etc, please let me know. Thanks! --David == A little background == Basically, TrinityOS is a Linux document that I started writing back in ~1997 about how to setup and configure secure and high performance Linux machines. Its a FREE document to everyone on the Internet but I own it and the content in it. Anyway, a long time ago, I put the (c) next to the name "TrinityOS" since some people told me that this would yield some protection to the name and the content but I never did any legal documents for a real copyright or trade marks. On a similar note, I also already own the domain TrinityOS.com. Why all this info? Today I received this email (and sent this response). Could you please talk to your friends and I'm willing to initially pay a few hundred dollars for a lawyer, etc. I want to keep the name TrinityOS and NOT have be taken over or diluted by someone else fringing on its good name. Its a VERY popular document on the Internet getting almost 300 downloads a day. Ps. A little background. This document has always been on the Internet and electronically written. I doubt I have any old printed versions of it but I have many electronic versions dating back to 10/8/98 on VERY quick glance. I'm sure I can find older versions from either my archives or possibly from the ~280 other people on the TrinityOS mailing list. Unfortunately, like in patent lawsuits, I don't have anything in a bound, written in pen, notebook so it won't be initially simple to defend. Well, that's it. I appreciate any help you can give me and I promise to keep you informed as things develop. --David ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 11:16:34 -0500 From: "Dan Guisinger (QWLSoft)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Please Clarify It was brought to my attention you have a page with what you are calling TrinityOS on it. You write "TrinityOS is my step-by-step guide to configuring up a powerful Linux server." Can you please clarify whether your are writing instructions or if this is an actual distribution? The issue is, my company has been developing an operating system called Trinity Operating System Platform (Trinity OS) for the past 2 years. I want to make sure neither of us have a trademark or copyright infringement here. If you are just writing documentation, could you adjust the name slightly to point more towards optimization configurization than an operating system? Please write back ASAP. Dan Guisinger President QWLSoft -- X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.5 (32) Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 10:46:18 -0700 To: "Dan Guisinger \(QWLSoft\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "David A. Ranch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Please Clarify >Can you please clarify whether your are writing instructions or if this is an actual distribution? Its just instructions to harden, secure, optimize, and add functionality for the Slackeware, Redhat, and others Linux distributions. >The issue is, my company has been developing an operating system called Trinity Operating System >Platform (Trinity OS) for the past 2 years. I want to make >sure neither of us have a trademark or >copyright infringement here. If you are just writing documentation, could you adjust the name slightly >to point more towards optimization configurization than an operating system? I do have a copyright on the name TrinityOS and its contents. Its purely based on the Linux operating system. If your product is some sort of an embedded system and won't be in the Linux space, I'm sure there won't be any conflict. If your product will be in the Linux space, we will need to talk. TrinityOS has been published on the Internet for several years now (~3 yrs now) and I want to avoid any conflicts if possible. If your product is what I think it is, I believe its a conflict. If you have a little time, tell me about your product and we'll talk. I'll be offline for a week or two vacation so please understand the time for me getting back to you. Ok? --David .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware [EMAIL PROTECTED] | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----' .----------------------------------------------------------------------------. | David A. Ranch - Linux/Networking/PC hardware [EMAIL PROTECTED] | !---- ----! `----- For more detailed info, see http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dranch -----' _______________________________________________ Masq maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Admin requests can be handled at http://www.indyramp.com/masq-list/ -- THIS INCLUDES UNSUBSCRIBING! or email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] PLEASE read the HOWTO and search the archives before posting. You can start your search at http://www.indyramp.com/masq/ Please keep general linux/unix/pc/internet questions off the list.
