[VANILLA-L:825] Re: [VANILLA-L:822] Trademark issue

To: vanilla-l@us.netrek.org
Subject: [VANILLA-L:825] Re: [VANILLA-L:822] Trademark issue
From: Michael David Mcgrath <mcgrat14@cps.msu.edu>
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 21:50:16 -0500 (EST)
In-Reply-To: <19980326141620.00879@indigo2.rad.bgsm.edu> from "Dave Ahn" at Mar 26, 98 02:16:20 pm
Reply-To: vanilla-l@us.netrek.org
Sender: owner-vanilla-l

> My opinion: I'd prefer not to let him trademark 'Netrek', but in the end
> it won't make much difference.  None of us are willing to spend the time &
> money to trademark the name (which may be contested by Paramount) or contest
> any legal action on his part.  I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think the
> term 'Netrek' itself can be copyrighted, only documents and program source
> code.  I do recall some discussion a while back about possible commercial
> potential of Netrek, though.  (Yeah right!)  Just thought I'd mention
> that.

     Netrek does not have any commercial value in its form as public
domain software.  Assuming that someone were to write a "commercial"
netrek client, the only thing they'd have to do (albeit a fairly big
thing), would be to rewrite the client completely, and credit all the
people who created the server and protocols (not monetarily, though.
The software is, after all, public domain).

     Also, of course, Paramount would never allow any Star Trek stuff
to have $$$ associated with it, unless they were in on it.  The theme
of the game would have to change, slightly, to be commercialized.  Actually,
this brings up an interesting point.  Any commercial client author would
have to deal with *any* references to the Star Trek Universe that the
server sent -- the teams would have to be renamed, and the text messages
redone on the client end.

     There's nothing stopping anyone from taking the "concept" of netrek
and running with it, though.  Too bad, in a way, since I imagine the
games industry will one day run across the gem of gems, and bastardize
it into the latest craze.  Icky.  I hope someone who knows the game at
least plays a fair role.  The authors of SubSpace have been heard to say
they got "ideas from netrek".  Man, did THEY get it wrong.

     -Mike
+
++ Vanilla-l Mailing List ++
To unsubscribe: send "unsubscribe vanilla-l" to majordomo@real-time.com
For more information: http://archives.real-time.com

References:

[VANILLA-L:822] Trademark issue

From: Dave Ahn <ahn@indigo2.rad.bgsm.edu>

Prev by Date: [VANILLA-L:826] Re: [VANILLA-L:820] Metaserver Solicitation Daemon Crash
Next by Date: [VANILLA-L:823] Re: [VANILLA-L:822] Trademark issue
Prev by thread: [VANILLA-L:823] Re: [VANILLA-L:822] Trademark issue
Next by thread: [VANILLA-L:827] Vanilla server on redhat 5.0?
Index(es):
- Main
- Thread