Kodi Is Fighting Trademark Trolls (betanews.com) 92
Friday the makers of an open source media player Kodi called out trademark trolls who they say have "attempted to register the Kodi name in various countries outside the United States with the goal of earning money off the Kodi name without doing any work beyond sending threatening letters." BrianFagioli shares an article in which BetaNews quotes Kodi community and project manager Nathan Betzen:
"At least one trademark troll has so far not agreed to voluntarily release their grasp on their registration of our trademark and is actively blackmailing hardware vendors in an entire country, trying to become as rich as possible off of our backs and the backs of Kodi volunteers everywhere. His name is Geoff Gavora. He had written several letters to the Foundation over the years, expressing how important XBMC and Kodi were to him and his sales. And then, one day, for whatever reason, he decided to register the Kodi trademark in his home country of Canada. We had hoped, given the positive nature of his past emails, that perhaps he was doing this for the benefit of the Foundation. We learned, unfortunately, that this was not the case," says Nathan Betzen, Kodi Project Manager.
"Instead, companies like Mygica and our sponsor Minix have been delisted by Gavora on Amazon, so that only Gavora's hardware can be sold, unless those companies pay him a fee to stay on the store. Now, if you do a search for Kodi on Amazon.ca, there's a very real chance that every box you see is giving Gavora money to advertise that they can run what should be the entirely free and open Kodi. Gavora and his company are behaving in true trademark troll fashion."
"Instead, companies like Mygica and our sponsor Minix have been delisted by Gavora on Amazon, so that only Gavora's hardware can be sold, unless those companies pay him a fee to stay on the store. Now, if you do a search for Kodi on Amazon.ca, there's a very real chance that every box you see is giving Gavora money to advertise that they can run what should be the entirely free and open Kodi. Gavora and his company are behaving in true trademark troll fashion."
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
That's a lot of words for "ironic"
Re: Funny... (Score:2, Insightful)
So, if you think the prices for a product are too expensive, that gives you the license to just take it without paying? That is some seriously screwed up logic and ethics you have there. Piracy occurs because people lack ethics and would prefer to take something for free rather than paying for it. L
Buy the license for your country (Score:2)
So, if you think the prices for a product are too expensive, that gives you the license to just take it without paying?
What about piracy because the media companies are too bone-headed to sell their media in my country?
You could start a media distribution company in your country and buy the license for your country. I admit that's impractical for most, but it's technically a subset of "if you think the prices for a product are too expensive".
You'll still need campaign money to change the law (Score:2)
No, the correct response is to recognise that copyright law is entirely broken
Agreed.
and to act accordingly.
If something is "entirely broken", sitting around and complaining that it is "entirely broken" will fix nothing. "[T]o act accordingly", you will have to instead make a plan to fix that which is "entirely broken". This may involve forming your own distributor so that campaign and PAC contributions from your distributor can outweigh campaign and PAC contributions from other distributors who take advantage of the "entirely broken" situation.
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BS. (Score:3)
I see your (somewhat incorrect) interpretation of the Constitution.
However, I raise you one 'violation of the social contract' that was done by copyright extension.
You see, copyright has always been what is called a balanced social contract. Society as a whole carry the cost of both allowing and enforcing copyright, at no cost to the copyright owners - and in return the 'works' are supposed to become the property of that society after a reasonable time to allow for a suitable profit to be made.
However, as I
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I use it when content that I would like to rent is Not Available In My Area at any price. I also use it for getting TV streams of networks that are in my cable tier, but there is no logon for my cable service on the streaming site.
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there is nothing of value lost
that argument has been studied so many times going back to computer hobby club in 70s passing around disks and sharing.
If a person pirates then they wouldn't have paid for it in the first place. And since it's only a copy then piracy for personal use harms noone and no corporations.
See
http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]
quote:
Downloading music and movies without authorization will remain legal in Switzerland after the conclusion of a government study found that the practise doesn'
Re:Funny... (Score:4, Insightful)
When you buy something that doesn't do what the marketing bullshit says it should do, there are laws in place that gives you the right to get a refund. Nothing similar exists for copyrighted material.
And some of them add more bullshit on the packaging saying that if you open it you agree to the bullshit legal mumbo-jumbo user agreement sealed inside the packaging that you can't read before opening it.
Copyright means copy right. The right to copy after a limited period of time. That law was put in place for both the authors and the public but since the last few decades it has become one-sided bullshit protecting mega-corporation that steal from the authors themselves and put people in prison or ruin their lives simply for copying media. The law is less severe if you steal physical things from a store, where there is actual losses involved.
EULA URL on box (Score:2)
And some of them add more bullshit on the packaging saying that if you open it you agree to the bullshit legal mumbo-jumbo user agreement sealed inside the packaging that you can't read before opening it.
When courts in some countries struck down those sorts of hidden agreements, publishers started to print on the box the URL of the agreement that applies to a work, which URL remains valid as long as the work remains in print. This way, the prospective licensee has reasonable access to view the terms before purchase.
Re:Reread the law (Score:1)
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It's funny that Microsoft is willing to fight trademark trolls but they seem to show little sincere interest in fighting piracy. Windows is widely used for illegal streaming services, and there doesn't seem to be much progress by Microsoft to ensure that it is used for lawful purposes. This seems like karma to me. When you create a product and don't care whether it's used to break the law, I have a hard time finding sympathy that you also have to deal with trademark trolls. The name Windows is becoming syno
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Kodi is open source... even if they did add signing requirement to the official build, it would be trivial for someone to fork it and produce a version without the signing requirement. Pretty sure if the Pirates have the skill to write a Kodi plugin to facilitate that, they would have no difficulty with making a custom build without signing.
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You're welcome to submit patches.
Re: And? (Score:5, Insightful)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org].
Robo-signing (Score:2)
AMO robo-signs unlisted Firefox extensions without any sort of manual review of whether or not an extension infringes a third party's copyright.
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And just how is that iPhone trademark a bad faith one?
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David R. Foley of UltraCade [wikipedia.org] attempted to trademark the MAME name (he was later found guilty of selling games he didn't have the rights to). The MAME team had to legally challenge this trademark application. So yes, the MAME name/logo/wordmark is a registered trademark mainly because someone else attempted to register it in bad faith first.
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After a recent trip to San Francisco, I, as an Australian with a big love of quality beer, was pleasantly surprised by the large number of high quality craft beers available. I didn't have to drink Millers or Bud (or even Fosters, which we cleverly managed to fob off onto the rest of the world
- sorry about that) even once. think the bad american beer meme has to be laid to rest - they actually have some pretty tasty beverages now.
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Fosters sold in America is made in Canada. It's actually worse than Australian Fosters. I know, hard to believe, but true.
The Canadians also make a _terrible_ version of Kingfisher. There is nothing the 'fifty first staters' can't screw up. Have seen what they do with french fries (chips to you)?
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It isn't their trademark until they start doing business in the country
The Kodi project has distributed its software to users in other countries. What is "doing business"?
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Shame on you, you cut short his sentence --"and/or apply for registration of the mark in that country."
Canada has moved to a hybrid first-to-file trademark registration system. Prior users of the mark may still demonstrate that they have priority, but they have to litigate priority in court. Many countries, like China, are hybrid first-to-file countries, and many others are pue first-to-file countries.
Regis [lexology.com]
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How much does it cost to prepare and file a trademark registration in all countries of the world?
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Per the quote, less.
Best approach (Score:4, Insightful)
His name is Geoff Gavora. He had written several letters to the Foundation over the years, expressing how important XBMC and Kodi were to him and his sales.
Well then, I suggest they talk to Hari Seldon and get it sorted out. He seems to have a lot of experience dealing with difficult people.
Sounds like he wants all the privacy lawsuits in (Score:3)
Re: Sounds like he wants all the privacy lawsuits (Score:1)
A: Because it breaks the flow of a message (Score:1)
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This is one of those problem (Score:2)
You know, the kind that a few friends with lead pipes can fix quickly and with a lasting effect.
It's fraud, call the RCMP. (Score:2)
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Interesting research project.
Sounds like the guy staked a claim on a word he should have known to be in wide, conflicting use in the industry he is doing business.
That would seem to be causing confusion in the market.
There appears to be an administrative process for challenges with time limits for some challenges, and no limit for others.
It would take a lawyer, experienced in the area, to know what options are available.
The trademark registration is here
https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/opic-cipo/trdmrks/srch/viewTr
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Canada is in some ways very different from the 'States, and one is in the degree to which the criminal courts will deal with what is arguably fraud. If a company attempts to obtain money from a Kodi dealer based on a "false and fraudulent misrepresenation", such as a improper registration of a foreign trademark, they could be charged rather than being sued.
As FeelGood314 says, Kodi should be talking to the police. I'd actually suggest they go to http://www.lsuc.on.ca/find-a-l... [lsuc.on.ca] and get a free 30-minute c