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[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Freeciv Worms tileset report.
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[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Freeciv Worms tileset report.

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To: freeciv-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Freeciv-Dev] Re: Freeciv Worms tileset report.
From: "Arturo Espinosa-Aldama" <arturoea@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 15:46:54 -0500

From: Jules Bean <jules@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Freeciv -Dev <freeciv-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Freeciv-Dev] Re: Freeciv Worms tileset report.
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2003 12:57:33 +0100

On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 06:49:51PM +0100, Martin McMahon wrote:

> having to use another word instead of worms is taking the copyright
> thing too far imho . I remember I film once that had someone
> copyright the number 1 and no- one could use the number one without
> paying money to do so , this is exactly that :)

This list is clearly not the place for a detailed discussion on this
topic, but I've seen this misapprehension twice:

You cannot copyright a word.  Nor is anyone suggesting that team 17
have tried to do so.  However a word can be a *Trademark*. Trademarks
do *not* have to be formally registered.  A trademark is a trademark
if you sell or market a product or service which has a distinctive
name. Registering just helps certain legal technicalities. The freeciv
project could probably successfully argue that freeciv was its
trademark, if it chose to. (But that would be mostly useless,
since most of this law is about revenue protection of some kind, and
freeciv doesn't generate revenue).

Trademarks are valid within fields of endeavour.  Worms is a computer game,
freeciv is a computer game; therefore it is (a) polite and (b)
required that we respect their trademarks.  It would be irrelevant if
we were making a car... but we're not.

Therefore, for goodwill and a pragmatic desire to avoid litigation, I
strongly recommend we steer clear of trademarks.

OK, these three paragraphs now got me really convinced. I'll change the name on the next push I put on the project. Yes, you can't copyright a common word, but that doesn't mean you're not stepping into trademark infringement.

Greetings,
Arturo

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