[Board] [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2020 - Halifax site causing confusion

Sun Dec 1 21:10:47 PST 2019

Good idea let us check:
https://cira.ca/policy/domain-name/cira-domain-name-dispute-resolution-policy

1.4 Eligible Complainants. The person initiating a Proceeding (the
“Complainant”) must, at the time of submitting a complaint (the
“Complaint”), satisfy the Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants
(the “CPR”) in respect of the domain name that is the subject of the
Proceeding unless the Complaint relates to a trade-mark registered in the
Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) and the Complainant is the
owner of the trade-mark.

It really does look like we need to be the owner of the trademark for
OSZGeo be eligible to file a complaint.

However there is something interring there "Canadian Presence Requirement".
Perhaps the local conference organizing committee could qualify as a
"Canadian Presence Requirement" explain that the current foss4g.ca website
represent a failed bid that is interfering with the conference in Calgary?
--
Jody Garnett

On Mon, 2 Dec 2019 at 05:49, Jérôme St-Louis <jerome at ecere.com> wrote:

> Jody,
>
> AFAIK Jeff works from his home office and his phone number is listed at
> https://gatewaygeomatics.com/contact.html
> I question whether obtaining trademark to FOSS4G is possible after it
> having been freely used in the general sense of Free and Open Source
> Software for Geospatial in a general sense for many years?
>
> However, on foss4g.ca both OSGeo - Ottawa and OSGeo - Quebec names and
> logos are featured, and both chapters have officially called to re-direct,
> take down the content, or clarify the fact that the FOSS4G 2020 takes place
> in Calgary, not Halifax.
> That could be ground enough for .ca to take action?
>
> The name/logo of OSGeo itself is also part of those chapters logo, and
> that may already be trademarked?
>
> Best regards,
>
> -Jerome
>
> On 12/1/19 11:37 PM, Jody Garnett wrote:
>
> I agree it is serous, and I recommend adding this to the next board
> meeting (ideally conference chair could attend?)
>
> But I also want to say as an organization we do not own the trademark, and
> we cannot compel action of an individual. Is this statement you disagree
> with?
>
> Perhaps this is a good reason to obtain the foss4g trademark? That would
> be my advised course of action. Obtain trademark and ask dot ca to remove
> this site.
>
> I also think we could figure out where Jeff is working and phone him.
>
> Any other thoughts on actions (not seriousness) Mark?
>
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 4:37 AM Mark Iliffe <markiliffe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Jody,
>>
>> I’m sorry to disagree so strongly, but i see this is as a severe issue
>> that dramatically needs to be resolved with haste.
>>
>> As a past (co-)chair of a global FOSS4G, i know the focus is to ensure
>> that funds are raised and the delegates and sponsors are clear on the
>> offering. Right now, this isnt the case as that site does look like Halifax
>> is the host, not Calgary.
>>
>> I would strongly urge the Board to take immediate action to ensure that
>> people are as clear as possible on what is being offered. The domain is the
>> first step to this.
>>
>> There are many reasons why time has been taken to resolve this - and as
>> someone who spent the first half of this year quite ill and dropped many
>> balls - I can understand this...! But, we’re less than a year away, so
>> let’s work on resolving this as quickly as possible.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> On 1 Dec 2019, at 22:28, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> k
>>
>> We do not maintain copyright on foss4g, this is a deliberate choice as I
>> understand it. So I do not think we can ask the ca domain to intervene.
>>
>> As for Jeff being unavailable we like to respect folks volunteer capacity
>> and ability to contribute when they have time. We have spent some effort
>> working around his in availability as a board.
>>
>> It is worth bringing this up with the next board meeting. Indeed it may
>> be appropriate to go about claiming the foss4g trademark.
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 1, 2019 at 11:39 PM Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Jody
>>> ,
>>> Is this a case where the board is the committee that needs to act?
>>>
>>> Regards
>>> Steven
>>>
>>>
>>> +44 (0) 7958 924101
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>> On 1 Dec 2019, at 20:01, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> 
>>>
>>> We do not need a procedure for everything, some troubles will just need
>>> to be handled if they occur.
>>>
>>> I do not intend to dismiss your interest, osgeo committees are empowered
>>> to act and remove individuals who are not welcome. Indeed we ask that all
>>> committees / projects / events have a code of conduct.
>>>
>>> In the August F2F
>>> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/images/7/7d/Face_to_Face_Meeting_2019_Bucharest.pdf>
>>> meeting we discussed establishing a black list for individuals who are not
>>> welcome at our events, and a "gray list" for individuals who we "wanted to
>>> talk with" before they attended one of our events again. The kindest way we
>>> could think to handle this is to ask the individual to sign a the code of
>>> conduct (so there could be no miscommunication with respect to behaviour).
>>>
>>> Individual committees can also control their membership with a motion,
>>> projects can adjust an individuals commit access, and so forth. To
>>> specifically answer your question the board is in position to update the
>>> charter members list (and is supposed to do so as a result of inactivity).
>>> --
>>> Jody Garnett
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, 1 Dec 2019 at 20:08, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Haven’t seen a response yet and I note that as of now the foss4g.ca site
>>>> is still up. That is disappointing to say the least.
>>>>
>>>> I have copied in Karine Jean who was the co-chair of the Halifax bid
>>>> using the email on her OSGeo listing, perhaps she can remove the Halifax
>>>> site or ask Jeff to do so or explain why they think it should remain almost
>>>> a year after the decision was made to award to Calgary not Halifax?
>>>>
>>>> *A question for the board*: Do we have any procedure for revoking
>>>> Charter Membership in the event of behaviour that we consider to be in
>>>> conflict with OSGeo principles? I am not suggesting that this is the case
>>>> re Halifax web site but I think it prompts the question of what
>>>> would/should we do if a CM is considered to have possibly gone rogue?
>>>> ______
>>>> Steven
>>>>
>>>> Unusual maps in strange places -  mappery.org
>>>>
>>>> Subscribe to my weekly “Maps in the Wild <http://eepurl.com/dKStT-/>”
>>>> newsletter
>>>>
>>>> On 29 Nov 2019, at 22:14, Jonathan Neufeld <jneufeld at tecterra.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I apologize for sending this through the Conference_Dev list, however
>>>> I’ve been trying to reach Jeff McKenna for the past month with no success.
>>>> If I am out of line here, please let me know.
>>>>
>>>> Jeff - I’m following up again on my request to take down your Halifax
>>>> FOSS4G site at https://foss4g.ca/.
>>>>
>>>> As I have previously mentioned, the Halifax site is causing confusion
>>>> with some members of the community.
>>>>
>>>> In the spirit of open collaboration and building towards a successful
>>>> event, we are *requesting that you take down the site for Halifax 2020
>>>> which is making a false claim of hosting FOSS4G 2020 and sowing confusion
>>>> amongst potential participants.*
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Jon
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> JONATHAN NEUFELD
>>>> CO-CHAIR
>>>> FOSS4G 2020 CALGARY
>>>> http://2020.foss4g.org/
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Conference_dev mailing list
>>>> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Conference_dev mailing list
>>>> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
>>>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>>>
>>> --
>> --
>> Jody Garnett
>> _______________________________________________
>> Conference_dev mailing list
>> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>>
>> --
> --
> Jody Garnett
>
> _______________________________________________
> Conference_dev mailing listConference_dev at lists.osgeo.orghttps://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/board/attachments/20191202/66804572/attachment.htm>