Re: APOP support in movemail

[Robert J. Chassell]

   The X Consortium requests that the following names be used when
   referring to this software:

                                   X
                            X Window System
                              X Version 11
                      X Window System, Version 11
                                  X11

   Please respect their decision.

As I remember, the X Consortium introduced that language for legal
purposes when the US government decided that Microsoft had the legal
right, through its trade mark claim, to refer to its windowing system
as the "Windows" system.  The Microsoft claim was, in effect, that it
was the only organization at the time, more than a decade ago, that
worked with windowing systems.  The decision implied that the
competitors to Microsoft did not have windows, they had some more
wordy, less generic alternative.  The decision implied that the Apple
Macintosh did not have Windows, nor did any of the Unix windowing
systems.

You may respect the decision of the US trade mark office but I do not.
I used the word `Windows' before and still do to refer to X10 and X11
when talking with people for whom these are the salient window
systems.  It is misleading for me to do otherwise.

But when I talk about some other version of windows, like Macintosh
Windows -- more generally, when I talk with people for whom X is not
salient -- I try to specify the version,

Please bear in mind that trademark law has an overt and a covert
purpose:  it overt purpose, which is useful, is to reduce users'
confusion.  No two organizations are supposed to refer to their
different products with the same name.  Thus, a user is supposed to be
able to use words to distinguish between the windows from Apple and
the windows from the X Consortium.

The covert purpose is to hide alternatives from people who do not know
much.  This is done both by making the speaking of the alternative
less likely and by making it appear as if the trademarked word is the
prime or general entity.  Thus, because the trademarked term `Windows'
is falsely general, many people do not bother to think about the
history and alternatives to Microsoft Windows.

The trademark office could have granted Microsoft a trademark on
`Microsoft Windows'; that would have been reasonable.  The use of the
term would have prevented confusion.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         Rattlesnake Enterprises
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.teak.cc                             address@hidden