How does it affect user groups Re: [SGVLUG] Linux Trade mark ...

[Dustin]

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005, David Lawyer wrote:

> No.  Many dictionaries show it as a word in the English language.
> Until there's a court case, it's not known if it still retains
> trademark status.

I will accept the correction, but in a sense that would always be true--we 
won't know if the last decision still holds until next time, yes?

I am reminded of a friend, whose girlfriend's father believed that one
only knew if democracy still existed at the point where the government
changed hands peacefully.  Examples: by this test the last time democracy
was tested in the US was 2000, and we won't know again until 2008.  More
disturbingly, by that that view postwar Japan has only been verified to be
democratic *once*, in 1993 when the LDP lost power briefly.  Sure, one can
be fairly sure the Republic stands for any number of reasons, but the
claim was it can be definitively tested only one way.  Join the fun and 
check the test status of your favorite country or ancestral homeland!

It's a harsh but pungent test for which I have quite a bit of sympathy.  
It does a most excellent job of excluding all the bad actors who normally
hide oligarchy behind a facade of democracy, for example.

Dustin