[Koha] Plea for help from Horowhenua Library Trust re: Koha

[Mitchell, Michael]

I think everyone ought to think long and hard before patronizing PTFS/Liblime. This sounds like a huge betrayal to the trust of the community.


Michael Mitchell
Technical Services Librarian
Brazosport College
Lake Jackson, TX
Michael.mitchell at brazosport.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Cary Gordon
Sent: Wednesday, November 23, 2011 12:55 PM
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [WEB4LIB] [Koha] Plea for help from Horowhenua Library Trust re: Koha

I don't think that is silly at all.

You should definitely contact the EFF, if you haven't already, and also the Free Software Foundation <http://www.fsf.org/>. You might also want to talk to the Software Freedom Law Center <http://www.softwarefreedom.org/>. While they might not be able to help you directly, they might be able to give you some advice and/or a referral.

Thanks,

Cary

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Jason Sherman <jsherman at usao.edu> wrote:
> This may be a silly question, but have you considered contacting the 
> Electronic Frontier Foundation to ask for assistance?
>
> https://www.eff.org/pages/legal-assistance
>
> 2011/11/21 Joann Ransom <jransom at library.org.nz>:
>> As I am sure most of you are aware, Horowhenua Library Trust is the 
>> birth place of Koha and the longest serving member of the Koha 
>> community. Back in
>> 1999 when we were working on Koha, the idea that 12 years later we 
>> would be having to write an email like this never crossed our minds. 
>> It is with tremendous sadness that we must write this plea for help 
>> to you, the other members of the Koha community.
>>
>> The situation we find ourselves in, is that after over a year of 
>> battling against it, PTFS/Liblime have managed to have their 
>> application for a Trademark on Koha in New Zealand accepted. We now 
>> have 3 months to object, but to do so involves lawyers and money. We 
>> are a small semi rural Library in New Zealand and have no cash spare 
>> in our operational budget to afford this, but we do feel it is something we must fight.
>>
>> For the library that invented Koha to now have to have a legal battle 
>> to prevent a US company trademarking the word in NZ seems bizarre, 
>> but it is at this point that we find ourselves.
>>
>> So, we ask you, the users and developers of Koha, from the birth 
>> place of Koha, please if you can help in anyway, let us know.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Jo.
>>
>> --
>> Joann Ransom RLIANZA
>> Head of Libraries,
>> Horowhenua Library Trust.
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz 
>> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jason Sherman
> Systems Librarian
> University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
> 405.574.1340
> _______________________________________________
> Koha mailing list  http://koha-community.org Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz 
> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>



-- 
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com

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2011-11-23

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2011-11-28