| I think it's important to note here that this isn't just about "is core bloated" it's also about the new elephant that has emerged at the center of Drupal's ecosystem: Acquia. I think Nedjo (a permanent member of the Drupal Association) puts it best here (http://groups.drupal.org/node/170999#comment-575044 ) and here ( http://groups.drupal.org/node/170999#comment-580704 ) Some quotes from those two comments:
"What Acquia means for the overall Drupal project is a question that's key for the project's future. Currently 3 of 8 Drupal Association (VZW) board members are on staff at Acquia. This is not due to Acquia stacking the board with its own people. All three have been active in the DA since its early days, before Acquia even existed. Rather, in my view, it is one of many reflections of the convergence of Dries' roles and choices in various domains of the Drupal project: in the Association, in Acquia, and in Drupal core. Sure, this convergence has benefits. But it also has major risks that we all need to be cognizant of and active in addressing. The influence of Acquia (or another company) on Drupal core may sometimes be explicit, and it's worth looking at specific patches that may or may not reflect this issue. But I think much more to the point are the larger factors of scale, resources, access, and influence. By analogy, there's the name Drupal itself. We all through our participation and contribution help build meaning for the name, but ultimately its use is controlled individually by its trademark owner, Dries. Any company or individual may apply for a license to use the trademark for commercial purposes, subject to the conditions, which include notice that the requirements for usage may change. Basing a major company, product, or service off an external trademark implies some risk. Does Acquia have differential access to the trademark based on Dries' ownership of both Acquia and the trademark? In practice, the most high profile private branding of Drupal products and services are mainly in Acquia: Drupal Gardens, Acquia Drupal. "In approving or rejecting proposals and patches, [Dries] gives special weight to comments made by people he trusts and respects for their past contributions to Drupal." About Drupal: Core Developers.) In practice, Dries has gathered around him in Acquia an ever growing number of the core code contributors he most trusts and respects. Included in this pattern are core branch maintainers--for both Drupal 6 and Drupal 7, the individuals Dries chose as branch maintainers were subsequently brought onto staff at Acquia. In Angie (Webchick)'s case, her work at Acquia looks a lot like a continuation of her previous work as a core maintainer. Even with a high level of technical skill and insight, getting even a minor change into Drupal core can require months of work (assuming you aren't in the elite ranks of IRC superstardom). Contributing larger changes - like significantly rewriting a major API system - is a huge investment. Before making such an investment, any company would have to have a high degree of confidence in its likeliness of success. Acquia has on staff all current committers to Drupal core, and talent to burn, including a lot of the inner circle of Drupal core development, backed by venture capital and a presence in every main area of Drupal products and services. Does this in itself mean that all of Acquia's core initiatives will go in while those of other companies will languish? No. Does it mean that Acquia is uniquely positioned to invest in long term core development, to shape Drupal's future with a degree of confidence that others can only dream of? I think the answer's clear: of course it does." |
Be careful asking a question and then citing marginally evidence as if it proves an answer to the question...
The question is if they got those trademarks fairly. The evidence you cite next is that their brands are high profile. These two things are not really connected.
To try to actually answer the question, I don't believe Acquia has extra access to the trademark process. Having gone through the trademark process I can say that an external team of lawyers manages and adjudicates the process which keeps Dries at arms length from all decisions.
But even without an audit of the process of granting trademarks it's pretty obvious that "Drupal Gardens" is a name which meets the guidelines for a commercial use of the trademark since it doesn't imply the nature of the service. "Acquia Drupal" is probably covered under fair use since it truly is the Acquia version of something.