Comment by RobotToaster
4 hours ago
Honestly, the dude has added a disclaimer and agreed to change the name/logo/etc, giving the poor guy a few days to come up with a new name and register the URL doesn't seem a lot to ask. The dogpiling in that thread now seems especially unnecessary.
I think the reasonable response would be to take the website down and make the repo private while they change the name.
Yeah it's pretty clear that he's well-intentioned. There are plenty of ports of open source projects literally named "port of <trademarked name>" and generally the original authors don't mind. what even is the point of open source if you can't do that?
If I fork a repo on GitHub and the name of the project is trademarked, have I committed trademark violation?
In this case he just went a little too far by cloning the whole website. Even then tbh I still take his side because it's in the spirit of the Wild West Internet culture to have done something like this.
> If I fork a repo on GitHub and the name of the project is trademarked, have I committed trademark violation?
If you purport that you are that project, then yes.
Trademark is a consumer protection law that protects people from misrepresentation -- when you buy a Coca Cola you know it is the Coca Cola.
If there is any confusion that [x] software port is from the same original author of [x], it is trademark infringement.
> what even is the point of open source if you can't do that?
Open source is about sharing the code itself -- it is not about misrepresenting who wrote it. There is a very clear line between the two.
Wow, have you seen his resumé?
There is no language or culture barrier here. This guy knows exactly what he's doing.
We'll wait while you check it out :D