[plug] The clarion voice of sanity in a slashmob of chaos.

[Senectus .]

Sorry for digging this up again.. but I thought this would help
explain things to some a bit better.
It's an update from the groklaw article:
 UPDATE:

For all of you who are still *positive* this is some kind of a "scam",
I suggest you read what maddog wrote about it, posted to the Linux
Australia email list. The poor man has spent $250,000 of his own money
already, and the idea is to set up a self-supporting non-profit to
carry the load. Read it and weep, those of you so quick to find fault,
and then say you're sorry, please. Here's just a bit:

    Since 1995, when an unfortunate incident in the United States
showed us that the world is not made of altruistic people and
companies, Linux International has been defending the Linux Trademark.
At that time an entity had obtained a US trademark on the word
"Linux", and was trying to obtain twenty-five percent of the REVENUES
of companies that had the word "Linux" in their name, or in their
product names. Instead of all the member companies fighting this
battle individually, Linux International fought it and won.
Unfortunately it cost us a lot of money to do this, despite the pro
bono efforts of Gerry Davis, of the law firm of Davis and Schroeder.

    Linux International has been defending the Linux Trademark for the
world, which due to the costs of registering and obtaining
International Trade Marks is VERY expensive. Linux International has
spent over 300,000 USD to do this over the years. LI is a non-profit
and does not have very much revenue, so some of this money has come
from my own personal checkbook. While I can not say how much money I
have spent on defending the mark per se, I can tell you that I have
spent about 250,000 USD of my own money in keeping LI alive. I am not
looking for medals or a chest to pin them on. I am only stating this
to show people that this is not a "scam", nor is anyone making any
money off this other than the international legal and trademark
community, and I am sure that they are necessary and justifiable fees.
Certainly Jeremy Malcolm has seemed to be above board and
conscientious in all of our dealings with him, as has Jonathan Oxer
and the rest of the fine people at LAI.

    After a while the board of Linux International recognized the
advantage of forming a separate non-profit, the Linux Mark Institute
(LMI). We need LMI to be self-funding, and following trademark laws in
the 200 countries of the world is very expensive.

Linux(r) is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and
other countries

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Now lets put this thing to bed and carry on with the good stuff :-)

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