Dave Johnson is being harassed by Weblogger.com, a for-profit weblog hosting site, for naming his open source weblogging product Roller Weblogger. The story so far:
Erin and I are still on fairly friendly terms: I offered to put a big disclaimer on my site and a link directing people to Weblogger.COM and Weblogger.COM offered to buy me a new domain name. I am glad that we are trying to work this out in a amicable way, but I still feel threatened by legal action that I cannot afford to fight.
[Here] is the email that Weblogger.COM sent to me. As far as I can tell, these guys do not own the word ‘weblogger’ and therefore do not have a case, but I am still researching this and looking into free legal resources.
‘I do not need a registered trademark to sue you. Ask your attorney. I take it by your attitude here you are ready for a fight. You will hear from my attorney next.’
Erin Clerico is the owner of Weblogger.com and the one who is making these threats against Dave. I don’t see him going after weblogger.dk, weblogger.nl, weblogger.hypermart.net, or the Weblogger project hosted at weblogger.sourceforge.net. Just Dave.
Comments (on Sam Ruby’s site).
5 PM: Weblogger.com update: Weblogger.com has officially recinded the threat of lawsuit and I have added a disclaimer to the main Roller Weblogger page. I’m hoping that this is the end of the issue, but that remains to be seen.
Let’s hope so.
6 PM: Erin: Oh boy did I step in it big! I felt a threat to my company and over reacted. I here by apologize to Dave Johnson of rollerWeblogger fame for my actions.
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