[asterisk-biz] Digium enforcing its trademarks

[David Boyd]

On Thu, 2008-01-17 at 16:53 -0800, Nitzan Kon wrote:
> --- Craig Lawrence <craig at mytel.net.au> wrote:
> 
> > It seems somewhat hypocritical to rely on trademark protection in one
> > instance but abuse it in another.
> 
> Isn't this "business as usual" for most companies though? a law that
> benefits the bottom line is a good law, and a law that hurts the bottom
> line is a bad law - and to hell with the customer... it's called human
> nature. ;) (and it's a bad thing...)
> 
>   -- Nitzan
> 
I am a partner in an open source company and truly believe in the
process. I also believe in capitalism and support the effort of anyone
to try and make a profit. However what I don't believe in is the attempt
to ride the backs of the open source community without regard for the
long term benefit of that same community. It seems success breeds a
desire to capitalize on that success, and while I don't begrudge Mark
for his success, it shouldn't come at the detriment of the community
that helped make him successful. 

The downfall of many companies with a great idea is the influx of
venture capital, once venture comes in to play no longer do you have the
luxury of doing good things, now you are working for the all mighty
dollar (I am American!). Venture capitalists do not care about the
community, nor do they care about little ole us, they only care about a
return on their investment and they will break the back of anyone that
stands in the way of that occurring. 

I have been a part of the community for almost five years and at the
start was all for the Asterisk project, because I believed someone
wanted to do good at the same time as doing well for themselves. 

Based on the events of the last 12 to 18 months I now question if there
was ever a time when there was a desire to do good! I am no longer in
support of Asterisk, as it has stopped being "The Asterisk project" and
has instead become Digium's asterisk product. I wasn't excited  to
support a company, I was excited about helping to support the concept of
an open source telephony project, but again in my opinion that no longer
truly exists. 

I wish success to the company Digium, simply because a group of people
work there that need to support there families. I also pay homage to
Mark for the idea of an open source PBX, as it has been a catalyst for
development of other community telephony projects. 

To all of you that still have the "I believe in Asterisk" button pushed,
great, however I believe it will be harder and harder to keep it pushed
based on the kinds of actions that have been taken in the past and will
continue to be taken in future to protect Digium at the expense of the
Asterisk community.

 

Wishing all of you a healthy and prosperous 2008.


Dave