Revision as of 13:04, 1 July 2010

Reasoning

Why do we want/need to limit the use of the name

• protect reputation of the project
• enforce contributing to the project
• collect money for funding further development

Legal Protection

Community will define entities around the world to act as trustees registering copyrights, domains, logo, trademark, etc on behalf of the community. When the registration process require names of persons, they must be done on the name of prominent citizens (chosen by community).

Use & Association with ADempiere

Use of the ADempiere name

Charities & Not for Profit Organisations

Private and Public Commercial Entities

Special Entities

• IP Owners
• Marketing Vehciles

ADempiere Citizens

• Do ADempiere citizens have the right to call themselves a citizen? i.e. can they say "ADempiere Citizen" ???
• Should ADempiere citizens be able top promote ADempiere freely without the potential legal claim for abuse of name
• Should citizens be able to use to trade on the positions they fulfil in the community i.e. receive money because they have some permissions others don't? Who should people be able to received funds from? Would we allow IBM to pay all of our trunk committers and hence take over the project by taking over the people ? Can citizens publicise their name and role within ADempiere?

Domains

Root and country domains must have granted permissions from community, and any trustee (ADeV or Adempiere Inc USA) must receive a letter establishing that the person or company registering is willing to transfer the domain to community on call.

Country domains must be used exclusively to promote community on the specific country, and not to promote one company or a group of companies.

For domains containing adempiere the trustees are allowed to pursue the usage based on fair rules, and even charge a fee for the usage (similar like Linux fair use)

Root Domains

e.g. adempiere.com, adempiere.org, adempiere.eu, adempiere.tld

Country Domains

e.g. adempiere.com.ec, adempiere.com.ro, adempiere.de, etc

Domains Containing ADempiere

e.g. adempierebusiness.com, adempiereisfun.com, adempieresurfclub.com

Officially Supported Domains

We should list all authorised domains - i.e. those part of the project and promoting ADempiere in each country that have followed proper process of authorization.

Non Official Domains

In wiki page we establish a page to mention the domains that have not followed proper process, as unauthorized domains.

Use of the ADempiere logo

Misuse

The use of ADempiere is subject to the citizens rights and responsibilities. (In this way we can bind the Citizens)

The use of ADempiere for non citizens is subject to authorisation from the legal representative enforcing trademark.

Consequences

• breach of citizen agreement
• misuse of IP by non-citizens
• ban rule breakers from wiki and sourceforge project

Who will protect the ADempiere IP

• I propose ADeV and Adempiere Inc. (USA Foundation)