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

Mon Dec 2 07:28:50 PST 2019

Hi All,

Thank you for all of the support on this issue, as well as the potential avenues to address it.
I would like to note that I also reached out to Karine and she was gracious and helpful.

We will explore the potential to have CIRA (the .ca registrar) remove the domain, hopefully it is a quick and efficient process.

I would strongly support OSGeo in registering the FOSS4G brand for international trademark protection. FOSS4G has grown into a large conference with attendance consistently at or above the 1,000 person mark and this is something valuable worth protecting so that it can confidently grow into the future.

Regards,
Jon

From: Conference_dev <conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> On Behalf Of Jody Garnett
Sent: Sunday, December 1, 2019 10:11 PM
To: Jérôme St-Louis <jerome at ecere.com>
Cc: info at gatewaygeomatics.com; jmckenna at osgeo.org; Conference Dev <conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org>; karine at geomatiqc.com; osgeo-board List <board at lists.osgeo.org>; chair at foss4g.ca
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G 2020 - Halifax site causing confusion

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<http://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<mailto: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<http://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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com>> wrote:
Haven’t seen a response yet and I note that as of now the foss4g.ca<http://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<http://mappery.org>

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On 29 Nov 2019, at 22:14, Jonathan Neufeld <jneufeld at tecterra.com<mailto: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/
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