15 Responses to “The Name Problem, Part III”

1. galoot Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 2:14 pm

   I’d be moving in the direction of good IP legal advice – and quick. An oversight is one thing, but these people seem to be repeatedly taking aim at their own feet. And dissing Chris and the whole venture in the process. Maybe the Dresden Dolls could write a song about the whole fiasco….

2. mcg Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 2:30 pm

   I have to agree. Get a lawyer. They’re going to bully you into submission otherwise.

3. mcg Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 2:30 pm

   Oh, and incidentally, I’m a big fan of nearly all of the founders of OSM. But this is still a big screwup.

4. Andy Vance Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 2:38 pm

   If this gets any more meta, I fear we risk a rift in the space-time continuum.

   I love the argument that “OSM” really isn’t an acronym, sort of like how KFC no longer stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken.

5. Jon Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 3:14 pm

   To make matters stranger, while OSM claim to own the domain name http://www.opensourcemedia.com, this actually takes you to info on a piece of software called ‘zope’ (have the makers of this had anything to say about this controversy?) http://www.opensourcemedia.net still takes you to this radioopensource site (you own the opensourcemedia.net domain name?)

   It looks as if OSM are either trying to confuse people, or they very much messed up (I mean, when I’ve set up websites I’ve put lots of efforts into making sure domain names etc don’t confuse people – after all, I wanted visitors to be able to find the sites easily and know who the site belonged to )

6. The Classless Society»Blog Archive » OSM, meet CBS Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 3:24 pm

   [...] at OSM learn anything that would be useful in dealing with their present situation? Like, when you’re in a hole, stop digging?

   [...]

7. Brendan Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 3:38 pm

   Just to clear up real quick, opensourcemedia.net was, for a short time this May, our URL. It was registered at the time through our service provider. We now have a new service provider, but a friendly relationship with our old one. We had neglected the URL because we no longer actively use it, but we did retain ownership of it. You’ll see right now that it points back to our site.

   And, yes, we have sought and received legal advice.

8. Brendan Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 3:40 pm

   And yes, Andy Vance, I hate all this meta. Because of this I haven’t been part of any real show production since Tuesday.

9. My Blahg » OPEN SORES MEDIA Says:
   November 18th, 2005 at 4:33 pm

   [...] OPEN SORES MEDIA November 18th, 2005 They’ve been caught peddling lies already. Now they’ve substantially re-written “About Our Name [...]

10. kevin de bruxelles Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 4:53 pm

    OSM has issued a correction:

    Due to a miscommunication, OSM inadvertently wrote on our site that Christopher Lydon of Radio Open Source “graciously agreed” with us to give up the url opensourcemedia.net. This is incorrect. He gave up the use of that url entirely of his own volition and after no discussion with us. We had never contacted him before he took his action.

    We apologize to Mr. Lydon for this error on our part.

    Is this statement true?

11. pwray Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 5:15 pm

    Man, they suck and they still have your url as .com instead of .org

12. Flitcraft Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 5:19 pm

    It’s pretty clear that those other boys and girls embrace the newspeak attitude of their corporate and political clan. But since the creative commons ideal isn’t a suicide pact, this instant case seems tailor made to push back against some of the private, commercial forces that seek to annex that which belongs to us all.

    Skee rue them, please, by all means.

13. BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Maybe Pajamas Media wasn’t such a bad name afterall Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 5:36 pm

    [...] Media, the whatever-it-is, has a disingenous and recently revised explanation that Brendan deftly slices apart here. At the bottom of the Open Source Media, the radio show, pag [...]

14. Harshly Mellow Says:
    November 18th, 2005 at 5:43 pm

    Hey, here’s a good thing about OSM: (UPDATED 11/18)

    If we need any hairs split, we know where to go…

    I’m trying so hard to quit looking at this, but it has car-wreck style qualities that just can’t be ignored,

15. Jizzbug Says:
    January 11th, 2006 at 6:56 pm

    Corporate and fictitious names

    I see OSM has already changed their name back… But I figured I’d throw a few pennies into the pool regardless.

    Corporate names (whether for Incs, LLCs, LLPs, etc.), in most cases (but of course it differs from state to state), must “be such as to distinguish it upon the records in the office of the secretary of state from the name of any corporation, limited partnership, limited liability company, business trust, registered limited liability partnership or foreign registered limited liability partnership reserved, registered, formed or organized under the laws of this state or qualified to do business or registered as a foreign corporation, foreign limited partnership or foreign limited liability company in this state” (RSMo 385.450.2).

    Fictitious names, names other than the corporate name that a business does business under, must also be registered with your secretary of state (in most states). However, fictitious names are not required to be unique.

    I could have My Own Thing, Inc. and register a fictitious name of “Open Source Media” for my company. I could operate under the name “Open Source Media”, and you couldn’t do much about it. As long as I didn’t run a blog service the name “Open Source”, you couldn’t come after me with your “Open Source” service mark. I could, however, run a newspaper or magazine called “Open Source”.

    Frankly, blogs suck and so does the “blogosphere”. “Blog” has got to be the ugliest buzz word ever invented — regardless of how you conjunct the word, it is still hideously stupid. Hopefully all these damn “blog” companies go out of business Real Soon(tm).

    Please stop whining.

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