http://www.vanemery.com/Linux/Apache/apache-SSL.html

This is the long awaited return of the Steve Hannah Show after a 3 month hiatus. I’m back in full force with two fresh faces joining the team. Enjoy!

References:

More information about TED can be found at http://www.ted.nu

I found it interesting that Dataface Inc from Houston, TX decided to file a trademark for DATAFACE in Canada. I have been using the trade name Dataface since March 2005, in Canada. Their trademark application found
here declares that they have used it in Canada since at least Nov. 5, 2007. That is over 2 years after the first use for my open source app.

According to the Canada trademark application instructions I can file a statement of opposition with the opposition office. However it costs $750 to file the claim and I haven’t been able to find a good example of what such a claim looks like. It doesn’t appear as though there is a standard form for this.

In doing some research on the validity of my claim to the trademark, I came across the Effigi Inc v Canada case in which it was declared that the date of first use was not relevant and that the dates of filing were the key decider as to who had rights to the trademark. This would indicate that in Canada it is essentially a first come first served system. Read more about this here.

Lessons Learned

1. Don’t delay in filing for trademarks for any names you use, as it will be more costly and more of a hassle later on if another party decides to trademark your phrase.

This is obviously frustrating for someone like me who just wants to develop good open source software, and naturally needs to give a name to his products. It is unreasonable to trademark every name that I use since most of my products are released free to the public and for public benefit. It is a catch 22 because I cannot afford to trademark every phrase used in my applications, and I cannot afford to change the names of my applications when some tax-collecting company decides to trademark my phrase.

I hope that the powers that be might some day recognize the unjust aspects of this system and correct it so that artists, like myself, are protected from corporate interests.

I have created and released dozens of open source applications and have coined over 50 phrases concerned with labeling certain programming patterns. It would cost me about $10,000 to trademark all of these names and phrases (if I didn’t enlist the help of a lawyer). This seems rather ridiculous since most of these applications are free and open source, and I derive no money from them. Hence I would be paying a tax of $10,000 purely for the ability to name my things without having to worry about being sued or forced to change the name at a later date (which is a huge hassle, once you have amassed a lot of material on the topic.

I plan to blog on this issue more specifically once I have looked more closely into the protections available to artists with respect to corporate rent collectors.

Well I figured this might happen eventually. A company in Texas has taken exception to my use of the name ‘Dataface’ for my open source application framework. It must rot their socks that I also come up #1,2 and 3 on Google for the search term “Dataface”.

I received a letter from their lawyers as follows:

The Buskop Law Group
Patents & Trademarks
4511 Dacoma Street
Houston, TX 77092
Telephone: 713-275-3400
Fax: 713-275-3419
www.buskoplaw.com

Dear Mr. Hannah,

We are the intellectual property cousel for Dataface, Inc., a company that awas founded in 1981. Dataface is the owner of the common law and U.S. federally protected trademark DATAFACE for a computer program in the field of facilitating conversion of legacy applications and data to a newer, more efficient technology using object-oriented programming techniques, as referenced by U.S. Trademark No. 2,617,053.

Dataface. Inc. has used the trademark DATAFACE in conjunction with their products and associated services since 1997. A copy of the referenced U.S. federal trademark registration is included herein as Attachment A. In addition, Dataface, Inc., has used the referenced trademark in Canada in conjunction with their products as well. Through extensive use of the mark, our client has developed a valuable goodwill in the DATAFACE trademark.

It has come to our client’s attention that you and your company are currently using a mark termed “Dataface” to promote and advertise products offered by your company on the company’s website at www.data-face.com. A copy of the webpage showing use of the term “Dataface” from the website at www.data-face.com is included herein as Attachment B.

Your use of the term Dataface is highly similar in look, sound, and connotation to our client’s common law and U.S. federally protected trademark DATAFACE. In addition, your use of the term “Dataface” is used in association with goods and/or services that are highly related to the goods and/or services offered by our client and covered under their U.S. federal trademark registration. Given the clear similarity between the term “Dataface”, as used on your company’s website, and our client’s trademark, your continued use of the term “Dataface” may cause a likelihood of confusion among consumers and customers of our client’s products and associated services.

Accordingly, my client requests that you discontinue the use of the www.data-face.com domain name and dicontinue the use, display, distribution of materials bearing the term “Dataface”, any derivations of the term “Dataface”, or any expression that comprises in whole or in part, our client’s trademark DATAFACE, within 30 days of service of this letter, and adopt another term for use in conjunction with your company’s products and services. Please contact our office if you have any additional questions regarding this matter.

Regards,
Buskop Law Group, P.C.

Wendy K. B. Buskop
Managing Patent Attorney

cc: Dataface, Inc.
Judith Osborne, VP Legal Affairs, Simon Fraser University

Cleverly, they applied for a canadian trademark a couple of weeks ago to solidify their case.

This was just posted on my fun wall. I wonder how many people they had to interview to get this footage. It is solid gold!

I have never been one to enjoy my printing experiences. I print as little as possible (preferring to use electronic documents) and when I do print I often run into problems. It doesn’t matter which operating system I’m working with, printing problems are sure to follow. Today, my Brother 440CN all in one colour printer embarrassed me as I promised that I would be able to print off a friend’s resume before he went to a job interview.

He arrived, I printed off a test document from firefox to make sure it was still working. Because I hadn’t used it in a while it spent a good 5 minutes cleaning itself, then it printed off the test page OK. Next came the time to print the resume. All of a sudden the printer complains the the Cyan cartridge is nearly empty. I thought no problem. Since this is the first warning I have had about this, that won’t be a problem. In addition the resume is just black and white so a cyan cartridge is not needed.
I though wrong.

The printer refused to do anything. Even when I attempt to change the settings to black and white only in the print dialog, the printer still refused to do anything.
There is a little disclaimer in the bottom of the print dialog saying that the printer will shut down if one or more of the cartridges is empty. Disclaimer is accurate… but please!!!

All I can say is that I don’t have time to deal with a printer that may or may not work on any given Sunday – so this one’s going to the heap and I’m going shopping for a laser printer. At least you get some warning when a laser printer it going to run out of toner.

I cannot stress enough how important these lack of features are on the Brother 440CN. If you are looking for a printer, I would recommend you choose a laser printer. Failing that, make sure that the ink jet will still perform with low ink in one or more of the cartridges empty.

I picked up the latest James Blunt CD last night at HMV. His first album took me by surprise and held the top spot in my collection for a while. There is no jinx for this sophomore as his second album is just as moving as the first. Somehow he finds a way to sing directly from his soul and grip me with the melodies. Unlike a lot of modern songwriters, he doesn’t write to merely rhyme. He is a true poet. I recommend this one if you have the opportunity to take a look. 10 solid tracks.

As a child I watched my fair share of historical movies that documented man-kind’s inability to get along, its recurring tendency towards mob mentality, and its succession of powerful ignoramuses. I used to watch these movies through the comfortable lense of “thank God we aren’t like that anymore”. Unfortunately, it seems that we still fail to grasp the concept of acceptance, we still tend toward mob mentality, and there are just as many ignoramuses in our ranks as ever before.

If you have been following the American news at all over the past couple of days you would have been hard pressed to avoid the news of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s talk at Columbia University in New York. My first thought was “wow! what a great opportunity to engage this guy in dialog, before the powers that be turn the wheels towards war”. I figured that the media, as life-time advocates of free speech would agree. I was wrong.

All anyone* in the U.S. has been talking about since this announcement is how irresponsible this is of the University to allow this “holocaust denier” to speak at such a prestigious university. There were protests, and many were calling on the University to cancel the talk. What were they afraid of? Were they afraid that people would listen to his talk, then start walking around believing that the holocaust never happened? Or were they afraid that he might actually make some sense and thwart the media’s efforts to depict him as a monster? If this is the case, then their fears came true on this day. Ahmadinejad came across as a man who was trying to do the best thing for his country. He did not sound like a monster. He did not sound insane. The President of the University, Lee Bollinger, came across as star spangled bully; choosing pat himself on the back for his demonstration of free speech while introducing Ahmadinejad as an “evil” man and a “petty and cruel dictator”.

Ahmadinejad called it right when he noted that Bollinger seemed to be attempting to vaccinate the audience against Ahmadinejad’s evil ideas even before he had an opportunity to say one word. There was nothing gracious about this introduction. Perhaps I expect too much from an Ivy League university. I would expect that they would show respect for a speaker that they have invited to speak at their institution – no matter who that speaker is. A few minutes into Ahmadinejad’s address, CNN cut away to interview their Arabic correspondent for his opinion of things “so far”. When the correspondent suggested that Bollinger had issued a “frontal and personal assault” on the Iranian president during the introduction, he was cut off immediately by both news anchors arguing that “don’t you think he was justified in doing this”. I could almost hear the lynch mob forming behind the cameras if the correspondent had even insinuated that this attack was unjustified.

In my opinion, Lee Bollinger embarrassed himself and the American people by exposing his fear of free speech while hypocritically claiming to be a proponent of it. He served to incite hatred and increase tensions rather than open new dialogue.

As for Ahmadinejad’s talk. There were some comical portions, like the part where he denied the existence of homosexuals in Iran.

I think it is important for all of us to watch the climate of hate as it slowly engulfs our society. After this talk, I am franky more scared of the potential of America’s “hate” than I am of Iran’s “evil”.

I may have crossed some lines in this one… so bring on the hate mail.

Episode Overview:
1. Britney Spears
2. Marie Antoinette
3. Vancouver City Council bans mixed martial arts

In this episode I discuss reality TV shows, and vigilante justice.

It ain’t easy being both the talent and crew of a show. We ran into every technical road block imaginable in trying to produce this episode. You may notice that I’m a little frazzled at the beginning.

Anyways, enjoy.

Thanks to my lovely assistant Beverly Wu for helping with the filming and editing.