On Sun, 13 Feb 2005 16:02:24 -0500, Sean Davis <erplefoo@gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't think it was communicated either, but I'm not positive. I do
> know, however, that the plan was to donate any
> NetBSD-logo-sale-related profits to NetBSD. The thing that irks me is
> that, as pointed out in the article written by the person who started
> the BSDfreak shop:

While it wasn't directly communicated with TNF, I feel it is important
to note that there are a myriad of shops out there distributing open
source merchandise, most of them for their own gain, not to donate. 
BSDFreak's shop made it clear in the mission statement that we would
be donating funds back to the community.

> there were two other cafepress shops selling NetBSD merchandise at the
> time, neither of which looked official. One of them is still
> operating. Two other issues are that the BSDFreak CafePress shop was
> selling things at a MUCH lower price than the official NetBSD one, and
> NetBSD didn't even *have* an 'official' one until they noticed the
> BSDFreak one, which had been there for months already.

Exactly, I feel as though the shop idea was mirrored and then I was
told to effectively "get lost".  It doesn't hurt my opinion of NetBSD,
but the management should be a lot more gracious when attempting to
defend a mark and copyrighted image that they don't necessarily have
the funds to litigate.  Adding to that, I think creating *good* will
in the community is much more important and as previously mentioned in
this thread, free advertising is priceless.
> 
> > Maybe we were a bit too fast, and should have asked if they wanted to just
> > share a bit of their profits, but then again (pleaes correct me if I'm
> > wrong!) they were pretty quick giving in (not that this is a real
> > argument).

I sent back an e-mail asking to negociate, but I decided against it
later because honestly I predicted the outcome would be (as Sean
suggested) a) price fixing or b) elimination of NetBSD merchandise. 
Neither of which is appealing because marking a product up over 100%
is ridiculous.  The only sales I received (a whopping $2.00) were from
a personal friend of mine and once CafePress cuts a check when I reach
a certain amount of total sales all *all* merchandise, I'll be sure to
donate that $2.00 to TNF.
 
> Personally, I think Alex was right: why, after all, would anybody buy
> a $10 t-shirt for $22, when the profits are going to the same place?

I agree, it's absurd.  My feeling is that the merchandise at a
reasonable price would sell more, creating more profit than if it is
sold at an absurd price where only the generous may purchase it.

> I agree. People should be allowed to sell NetBSD logo'd merchandise if
> they want to - sure, NetBSD owns the IP involved, nobody is disputing
> that - but even if NetBSD gets *zero* percent of the profits (which
> was never the intention of the BSDfreak shop, so far as I know), it's
> still free advertising, and I'm sure you'll agree with me that NetBSD
> isn't exactly going to be hurt by more people being aware of its
> existence.

I think the main factor here is, honestly, a bit of greed and
arrogance.  I haven't noticed (and please feel free to correct me if
I'm wrong) any other open source projects, like FreeBSD, OpenBSD or
Linux acting this way about their merchandise.  There are so many
shops out there carrying their merchandise and noone seems to be
complaining.  The key for NetBSD, in my opinion, isn't just donations
(which free adveritsing would help through increased awareness), but
actually spreading the image-- branding if you will.  People need to
know that NetBSD exists and if they do know that, then why they should
use it vs. the other *BSDs and GNU/Linux distributions.
 
> > *kick project management*
> 
> --
> Sean
> 


-- 
Best wishes,

Alexander G. Chamandy
Webmaster
www.bsdfreak.org
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