Re: Potential Launch of Boost Website: Request for Final Feedback

From: Niall Douglas (s_sourceforge_at_[hidden])
Date: 2024-02-16 21:32:25

On 16/02/2024 20:59, Glen Fernandes wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 3:55 PM Niall Douglas wrote:
>>
>> On 16/02/2024 18:55, René Ferdinand Rivera Morell via Boost wrote:
>>> Has the Boost Foundation enforced licensing of the current logo? If
>>> so, can you give an example of what that was?
>>
>> I remember cease and desist letters being sent to some people many years
>> ago who were sticking Boost branding all over their code and claiming it
>> was a Boost library, when it was not. They promptly removed their
>> claims. This was before the Software Freedom association and long before
>> any Foundations, so very long ago.
> 
> Wasn't that through the Boost Consulting (or the later Boostpro
> Computing) entity? Would not have been through SFC at least. (Nor
> during the Steering Committee or the Boost Foundation).

My memory is that it was at the tail end of the Boostpro era when most 
there had semi/official moved on.

I vaguely remember the lawyers around before SFC were invoked to write 
the letters, and there was some trouble there because they hadn't heard 
from Boost in some time previous.

But all this is a very long time ago now, and memory corrupts. In any 
case, it is important to have ownership of names, branding and logos 
otherwise you can't nudge internet people to not misbehave.

TBH if somebody did flagrantly abuse the Boost IP and ignored cease and 
desist letters, would we actually sue? Probably not, especially if the 
persons were anonymous or in a jurisdiction where suing them would be 
expensive/difficult/pointless. Best we can do in practice is ask nicely, 
then cease and desist letters, and then rely on social media pressure 
thereafter.

Niall