Gaim becomes Pidgin [LWN.net]

Gaim becomes Pidgin

Posted Apr 8, 2007 17:16 UTC (Sun) by Robin.Hill (subscriber, #4385)
Parent article: Gaim becomes Pidgin

I'd be very interested to see what the project/developers actually got from this settlement. From the announcement, it would appear to have been "settled" by caving in totally to AOL's demands (in which case, it would seem that the initial legal advice was pretty poor as well).

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Gaim becomes Pidgin

Posted Apr 8, 2007 17:52 UTC (Sun) by bk (guest, #25617) [Link]

They probably got an agreement that AOL/TW wouldn't sue them into oblivion. Regardless of the merit of the 'brand confusion' complaint we all know that big corporations can bankrupt individuals with legal fees, presumably the gaim folks wanted to avoid that.

Gaim becomes Pidgin

Posted Apr 9, 2007 17:06 UTC (Mon) by jimmybgood (guest, #26142) [Link]

Sure AOL could "sue them into oblivion", but that's no big deal. I read the crocodile tears at the Pidgin site and it makes no sense to me. Gaim was legally controlled by the Instant Messaging Freedom Corporation, which had no assets other than 1) the name Gaim 2) the code and 3) the support of the developers. The last two can go anywhere leaving only the name and they gave that up.

They talk about how they can now "release our new version." But there was nothing preventing them from releasing it months ago under the name "Pidgin" thereby making the AOL lawsuit moot. It seems pretty obvious to me that they were delaying the release and the name change to shake down AOL for some cash. If they weren't doing that than they were really foolish and they don't seem like fools to me.

The reason they never trademarked "Gaim" was because they that would have attracted AOL's attention at a time when AOL could have more easily squashed them and would have had a much better legal case.

This is analogous to opening a burger shop called "OldMcDonald's" and selling "OldBigMacs", after finding out that McDonald's had not been trademarked. The Pidgin folks have been fending off AOL succesfully for years. Why would they suddenly give AOL everything they want for nothing?