Editorial

International "Fidonet" Trademark/Copyright

I've seen the discussion in the Fidonews echo over the copyright and trademark of Fidonet as regards Zones other than Zone 1. Thoughts and beliefs all around seem to feel that either, the copyright and/or trademark are for the U.S.A. only and don't mean anything outside of the U.S.A., or that, due to some legal convention of some sort, the copyright and/or trademark is international.

I'm not going to get into the legal aspects of this. I am going to present it in this light:

Fidonet is an International community. As such, it spans the bounderies of nations and requires some thought in regards to laws in other countries and just plain old consideration for our neighbors.

True, the trademark and copyright might not mean anything in countries other than the U.S.A.

Does that mean that it should not be there?

True, the Nodelist and other documents are the work of the individual authors or people that wrote them.

Does that mean that some recognizition of the founder of Fidonet should not be in these documents?

In another discussion in the Fidonews echo, there was concern over copyright of articles submitted to the Fidonews Publication. Part of an explaination of the concern mentioned that a person, not in the USA, had written a program that he failed to copyright and that program was "stolen" from him when he loaned it to a company he worked for.

This brought up the question, in my mind, of "What if the program had been copyright in the persons own country and not in the USA and the company that 'stole' the program had been a USA company?". This might not seem to matter in this editorial, but hang in there.

Fidonet is a "global" cummunity. As such, we must interact in order to survive in one piece. True, we could split off into different parts... maybe we already are in regards to Zones... but we still have to interact in order to be Fidonet in the global sense.

So, just because it isn't copyright in one part of Fidonet, does that mean that it shouldn't be kept in other parts of Fidonet? What I'm referring to, in case you haven't figured it out, is the statements in the Nodelist that vary from Zone 1 to Zone 2 and maybe other Zones.

Some in Zone 2 state that the copyright for Fidonet is only in Zone 1 and doesn't mean anything in other Zones. Some in Zone 1 claim that the copyright does mean something in other Zones.

Who's right? I really don't care.

All I'm asking is, "Does it really matter?!?".

Let's pull all this together:

As mentioned earlier, a person wrote a program. Let's forget that the program could have made the person some money. Let's assume that the program was freely given for use and was copyright in that person's country only. Would it be legal for the USA company to not give copyright credit to the author? Of course it would be legal. Would it be proper?

Now, let's look at Fidonet. Fidonet was brought into being by a person in the USA. The copyright and/or trademark are copyright in the USA. Would it be legal for other countries to not include the copyright in their Fidonet related documents that would require such in the USA? Of course it would be legal. Would it be proper?

What I'm really saying here is simple. Legally, there might not be anything that can be done about what a country does in regards to a copyright or trademark from another country.

On the other hand, in regards to relations between the countries, there are things to be considered.

Maybe, instead of asking ourselves "Is it legal?" or arguing the "My Zone against your Zone". Maybe, just maybe, what we should ask is:

"What does it hurt to give and respect this copyright or trademark from another country?" and "What would I want if the 'shoe was on the other foot'"?

Regards,

Frank