Blogging Roller

Dave Johnson on social software, open source and Java

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Thursday Sep 19, 2002

Chilling Effect

Erin Clerico and the folks over at Weblogger.COM are upset about the name RollerWeblogger and have asked me to change it.  Now, I don't think that RollerWeblogger is the best name in the world, and it certainly does not roll (no pun intended) off the tongue - but it is the name that I chose.  If I change it, not only will I make it more difficult for people to find Roller, but I will also break all of the links out there that point to the articles on my personal weblog. As a weblogger (can I still call myself that?), this is pretty upsetting to me.

I was under the impression that weblogger is a generic term meaning "one who weblogs." Erin claims they own the copyright on the word, but from a couple of Google searches I get the impression that you cannot copyright a word, you can only trademark a word.  And the USPTO says that the trademark on the word "weblogger" is dead and abandoned.  But, what do I know: I am not a lawyer.

Neither Roller nor the Roller name endangers Erin's current or future business in any way, shape, or form. The names and the purposes of our two sites are very different.  I really don't think RollerWeblogger.ORG is confusingly similar to Weblogger.COM at all.  Here is how I would summarize the two entities:

Weblogger.COM is a for-profit company that offers easy-to-use weblogging accounts using UserLand's Manilla software, internet services, and website design consulting.

RollerWeblogger.ORG is a couple of Java programmers who spend some of their free time hacking on a totally free and open source weblogger entirely for fun and educational purposes.

I don't want to offer weblogging services and I do not want newbies to try and download the Roller software, so I try to direct them to other blogging services such as Blogger and Radio.  I tell them that if you want an easy to use weblogger then Roller is not for you.  To be honest, I did not realize that Weblogger.com offered such services or they would already be in my list of alternatives to Roller posted on the main Roller page.

Erin and I are still on fairly friendly terms: I offered to put a big disclaimer on my site and a link directing people to Weblogger.COM and Weblogger.COM offered to buy me a new domain name.  I am glad that we are trying to work this out in a amicable way, but I still feel threatened by legal action that I cannot afford to fight.  Any offers of advice, legal and otherwise, are more than welcome. I do not want to change Roller's name!
Dave in Roller Comments[0]

Tags: Roller

Chilling Effects

Chilling Effects: "Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? If so, this site is for you."

Funny that Dave should happen to post this today.  I'll probably have a little more to say about this topic later.
Dave in General Comments[0]

Tags: General

SnipSnap is not going commercial

The guys at SnipSnap want me to clarify that SnipSnap is not planning on going commercial. I guess that saying an open source project may go commercial is the open source world's equivalent of FUD. I do not want to spread FUD, so here is what they say:

you wrote that SnipSnap may go commercial. Thats only halfway right. The current SnipSnap and the current features will stay GPL, but there might be a SnipSnapXL version with enterprise features like TopicMaps, LDAP mapping and data mining, which will be commercial
Dave in General Comments[0]

Tags: General

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