I noticed the company who wanted to add their service directly into Owncast, and I said no, started releasing their own version of Owncast with their own changes in it to support this use case.
I'm not sure how to feel about this. It's kind of a fork, but it's really just another release of Owncast by somebody else. They're releasing something called Owncast with functionality and decisions that have nothing to do with the real Owncast. It specifically says stuff like "Owncast does X", and Owncast does not do X, and will never do X. Only their changes do X.
I fear this may confuse people. If something goes wrong with their version of the software, people are going to ask me for support, and might make the real Owncast look bad. But I don't know if this is wrong, or if this is completely acceptable. It's open source, and the name "Owncast" isn't owned by anybody, as Owncast is an open source project, not a company. So I guess they have the right to do whatever they want and call it Owncast.
But it feels wrong, and it seems like really bad things could come of this.
@gabek@lukem I think you will unfortunately need to register the trademark (probably before the other company tries to register it). And even if you take it out yourself right now, you could always transfer it to a nonprofit or some other entity later. Unfortunately defensive registration seems to be the way you unfortunately have to go.
@gabek@lukem In some cases, a nonprofit will be set up specifically to hold the trademarks, or that will be part of what it does. For instance, the Apache Software Foundation holds trademarks for its various open source projects: https://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/list/
@gabek@lukem So you could, for instance, set up an “Owncast Foundation” that is a nonprofit and exists to hold the trademark on “Owncast” (and any others that make sense). If it became a charitable entity (ex. A 501(c)(3) in the USA), it could also be a way for people to make donations to your work.
It would take some effort to set up, but this could be one path to go.
Last week, the @internetsociety filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court of México, in Richter v. Google, an important case in intermediary liability on the Mexican Internet, and our first non-US legal intervention. 1/
@karlauerbach@joebeone@internetsociety I completely agree that publishing and discussion CAN easily happen these days without intermediaries. A lot of the various Fediverse systems are a good step in that way.
My personal issue is that after decades of running my own systems, I don't want to anymore! I just want to write. I'll gladly pay or use an intermediary to take care of that for me.
Similarly, I'll use an intermediary for caching/CDN purposes so that pages load fast globally.
The other place I think intermediaries are with us for better or worse is... discovery of content.
I'm not really aware of how we've cracked that particular nut without centralized databases or systems, whether those are for a search engine, or for a directory site, or for a social media site where links are shared.
If you have pointers about that, I'd love to see them.
@karlauerbach@joebeone@internetsociety Interesting ideas. I like your other topics, too. Increased robustness / resilience is definitely something we need in a time of bizarre and extreme weather.
We have high wind alerts and as I watch the trees blow outside my windows... I'm also thinking about how many old trees we have around... and about how all our power lines are above ground on poles.
So if I'm not online later... there's a reason... 🙂
@Schouten_B@timoj To be fair, in many newer developments in Vermont, they are burying all the utilities when they are building out the lots. However, I live in a development of around 70 homes built mostly in in the 1960s and 1970s.
Amusingly, if I walk to the end of one road in our neighborhood, I reach a point where 8 or so homes were added maybe 20 years ago. And... ta da.. the wires dive down from the poles and go underground for those few homes. 🙂
My only good shot from totality (after I remembered to take the filter off the lens! 🤦♂️🤣). Totality was amazing and so I was drinking it all in. Temps dropped a good 10 degrees F, mosquitoes came out, the birds stopped singing, everyone’s solar lights came on, and it was incredibly dark. Really amazing!
And then it was over and everything started returning to normal!
There was of course only one song that could be used as the musical background 🤣
Not that I was just pointing an iPad with an added optical lens up at the sky. I wasn’t aiming for high quality photos… just more to have some memories of an amazing experience.
@mattblaze Based on your comments before the eclipse and similar comments from some others, I did something similar for my first totality experience. I had a tripod set up and did take a few shots, but spent most of the three minutes just looking around taking it all in. It was amazing!
I am amused by the suggestions from Vermont state agencies that people should bring a paper map in case GPS stops working. After 17 years with smartphones and Google/Apple Maps… ** do people even know how to read paper maps anymore? ** 🤣
@amcasari Yes, our cell networks weren’t built for this volume. It would be interesting (stressful!) to be in a network operations center today watching traffic volumes across the networks!
Today’s mission is simple: figure out where the sun will be in the sky starting around 3:00pm-ish so that we can plan where best to watch tomorrow’s big event! (Without actually leaving our neighborhood 🙂)