Comments on: I’ve Been Transmit’d

By: Bradley

Bradley — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:41:59 +0000

Not to get terribly sidetracked, but hostile behavior is more than commonplace in various Open Source circles on IRC. One project I work with has gotten a bad name for similar reasons, even though many (most) of the developers are kind and considerate. On the other hand, not to plug, but we at jQuery (#jquery and #jquery-dev on freenode) have a great community, and sort of an unspoken “no asshat” rule. So I know it’s possible for people to be civil; it needs to be a core value from the ground-up.

From my experience it seems that the lack of constraints around free software can unfortunately encourage bad behavior. Think about it: the developers generally owe you nothing, since they give away their product. The error is in thinking that common courtesy is a part of that.

I digress.

Daniel, sorry to hear about the incident, but I am glad it is being rectified. I can empathize a little: Recently when checking up on an old, old customer I found that they had haphazardly rearranged elements of a logotype I created for them years ago. It had become a free-for-all, adjusted in various ways without the slightest respect consistency on a number of different websites and other materials.

Of course it is their right to do such things, but I felt sad inside knowing that they had destroyed something that once held meaning; something I had given careful consideration and care, they in turn chose to not (geez, there’s even a usage specification…).

It’s not theft, but it feels similar. No one likes to see their work used in an unintended, undignified manner. Forgive the long comment…

By: wade

wade — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:04:45 +0000

I hope things work out for you. Love the software (planning on buying Black Ink soon too. Just tried it out and I think I’m in love). Again, best of luck.

By: Nehemiah

Nehemiah — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:51:39 +0000

with pjm here, I find it funny and rude for them to suggest that that icon is “Common in any sence, sence commonly there is no icon for “web browsers” cause thats normaly lumped with internet. Besides, the icon most ripped off seems to be the apple internet icon, the “globe” with the lights swerling around it. For example I would from just this Ubuntu install im using now that konqueror seems to have said globe implanted in its icon but thats not the same icon that’s hosted on the website . see here

By: pjm

pjm — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:06:25 +0000

Looks like they tapped Ecto for the “Web Editors” icon as well. I detect a theme…

By: Aidan

Aidan — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:16:20 +0000

FYI, it doesn’t seem to be part of the KDE distro, as intimated in the IRC log by BluePlanet.

http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/menu/pics/

By: Andrew Aitken

Andrew Aitken — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:10:38 +0000

It sucks when your logos turn up somewhere else on the internet - I’ve had it happen to me. Luckily it got changed before the project got big, so my logo is still associated with me.

I’m sure you were just caught up in the heat of the moment, but from that IRC log I would get a little defensive if someone came around and opened the conversation with the first lines you did. At least it’s sorted now, with not TOO much effort :)

There is some comedy gold in there:

“BTW how can you PROVE that its the same icon?”
“by “looking” at it … is a good start”

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:50:48 +0000

Thanks a lot for the support, everybody. It sort of happened in a whirlwind, and I wasn’t sure what I should do, even after trying to make contact and see where the project stood with it.

Texstar, who commented above, is apparently the person or one of the people in charge of the distro, so I am confident they will help to sort it out. Thanks a lot Texstar for chiming in here.

Daniel

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:06:01 +0000

First off, I’m sorry to hear about what happened. I’ve had my run ins with the Linux community before and those in the industry are very wary of copyright issues in general. I’m certain that the hostility had nothing to do with your claim, just a general distrust and dislike for IP issues in general.

Still, that doesn’t excuse the hostility or the behavior. Your PR guidelines always apply and even if they don’t like IP, they need to be wary of IP issues.

In regards to the law, trademark can be deluted and, in the U.S., you can have a trademark even if you haven’t registered one so, yes, defending it is a must. Copyright, however, can not become similarly diluted. Still, I think the icon is more valuable as a trademark than its copyright is.

Anyway, it sounds as if the situation will be resolved, just a lot of bad hoops to go through. I’m sorry you had to deal with all of that. Let me know if I can help in the future.

By: anon

anon — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:25:28 +0000

You need to go to http://kde-look.org and defend your app icon there…that’s where the offender really is.

By: Texstar

Texstar — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:21:31 +0000

Someone sent us a bunch of icon sets from kde-look.org for some menu icons. We were not aware this icon belonged to anyone. It has been removed from our system in an update going out tonight. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.