(2015-05-07, 14:09)j1nx Wrote: You are right. I will just call it "J1nxOS" and somewhere in small letters mention it is actually XBMC/Kodi and linking to github
Now you're getting it. You don't even have to put it in small letters. Trademark law doesn't say you can't mention the name "Kodi". It's more about how you market the brand and how it is associated with your actions. In theory, certain statements like "this uses Kodi" could be used as long as it doesn't imply various things. Think of trademark law as a form of identity theft protection for groups, companies, products, services, and such. It's not a ban on using terms, it's more of a ban on pretending to be someone you're not or implying things that hurt another group.
Another way to think about it, imagine if people were free to lie about what copyright license they use. Let's say I decide to make my own copyright license and call it GPL, even though another group is already using that. It's misleading, it's pretending to be something it's not. Or let's say I implied that the Free Software Foundation endorsed a project I was working on, in order to boost sales. Trademark protects such things. Even things that are not intentionally deceptive, but end up having that effect, are protected against.
(2015-05-07, 14:47)j1nx Wrote: It is good that they actively need to protect the trademark, otherwise they loose it and it becomes common good again. Wish them luck with that, don't think they can keep up with it for long.
Several non profit open source software groups have done this for decades. See
Wikipedia:List of trademarked open-source software (wiki)
(2015-05-07, 15:04)j1nx Wrote: But what do you want to accomplish with it.
Say you are "RHEL" and I am "CentOS"
All I need to do is grab your code, rename to for instance "Cood-E TV" and release without any further modifications. Considering the fact that honestly the amount of users not willing to pay for things is way bigger than the once that do. All it accomplish is have a select group of nerd play with it under the name "KODI", the rest plays with "Cood-E TV"
Is that really what you want to happen?
YES. That's what we want. Maybe not that exact example, because an argument could be made there about confusion still (in theory, not saying I would), but same basic idea if you used another name. We only want what we work on to use the name "Kodi", even if that means that no one knows what the hell Kodi is. It projects the project, allows us to keep working on things with far less issues, end users are still allowed to do what they want, venders can do what they want, the code is still open source and free, everybody wins. That's not a bad thing. That's a very very good thing.
It's a strange idea, I know. I didn't think it sounded like a good idea when I first heard about it years ago, when I first joined Team XBMC (as it was called at the time). However, the more you think about it, the more it makes sense. Kodi is a neutral ground (in multiple context, not just "piracy"), where anyone is welcome. Whatever you do after that, we don't care, but please don't confuse things with the name because it is important that we remain a neutral project.