[metaphorm]

suppose you were in Azer's situation, where a corporation has threatened legal action against you, and then did an end-run around you and used their influence to have the maintainers of your software distribution platform act against you unilaterally.

would you feel like you had been treated justly? what would your response be?

[vulpino]

Would I feel like I had been treated justly? Of course not. I would be angry. But in a situation like that, I can't blame npm because their hand was forced and I can't blame Kik for defending their trademark. Especially if they're planning on making a "kik" package that has something to do with, you know, their kik.

I'd like to think I'd be professional enough to change the name of the package once I was prompted by kik, reupload, and be done with it. I'd be miffed, but it's a piece of software. It won't ruin me to rebrand it. It'll take an afternoon, at most.

Cursing at people and calling people names, I'd like to think that we're above that as human beings, no matter how upset we are. That's something that teenagers in League of Legends do. That's not what a professional software engineer does.

[metaphorm]

> But in a situation like that, I can't blame npm because their hand was forced

was it really though? can you show me where NPM had any kind of obligation to unilaterally take one side in this dispute?

[vulpino]

They were not "forced" by court order or any other legal means, but they were "forced" because I can imagine going to court over the entire ordeal would have been incredibly draining on their finances and manpower and ultimately pointless. I'm willing to bet that whatever fallout this results in for npm (even as big as this has become) is ten times better than whatever would have happened if they'd decided to fight Kik over it. They probably just wouldn't exist anymore as a company.

[metaphorm]

I don't think it would have affected NPM whatsoever. The "draining" court battle would have been between Azer and KIK. to me the most confusing and inappropriate behavior in this whole sorry situation was that of NPM.

its easy for me to see where both KIK and Azer had legitimate claims to the name and its also totally legitimate for two parties to NOT come to an agreement outside of court. We have courts to settle disputes. That is where this should have ended up.

NPM effectively denied Azer his potential legal remedy by unilaterally supporting KIK.

[Mandatum]

But Kik Interactive wouldn't have taken them to court over this. It's a 100-person company. No one has the time, or the motivation to go on a tangent like that. Especially since they'll be paying hundreds or low-thousands in lawyer fees just to file.

npm dun goofed.

[brazzledazzle]

I'm not a lawyer but I imagine it would be taken care of as a court order in the lawsuit between Kik and Azer. Suing npm or github for a trademark dispute they have with Azer would be silly. The most I could see levied directly against npm is a cease-and-desist. But I guess just mentioning lawyers is enough for npm to hand over a module namespace.

[agnivade]

Hold on, hold on. Let's say you have worked hard on a project that you were not paid for, totally out of love for software.

And out of nowhere, a corporation threatens you to re-brand it else you are gonna face consequences, you are saying you will rename the package and be done with it ? Just like that ? Without asking why .. or finding a compromise ? I am sorry to say, but that's not how most people think.

Maybe this would have played differently if Bob would have used better language. But the fact that he went off with "our trademark lawyers are going to be banging on your door and taking down your accounts" would have pissed off any person.

And why can't a software engineer be "unprofessional" in his own private time when he is dealing with "unprofessional" people in the first place ? Have you even read any of Linus' mails ?