It looks like Dave Johnson has a
fight on his hands over the name for his site. Dave
states that he has been doing this for fun and educational
purposes, and prominently suggests that people who want an easy to
use software package should look to Blogger, Radio, or
LiveJournal.
Unfortunately, this isn't the fun or education that he was
looking for. I encourage anybody with insight into the origin
of the term "weblogger", or the alleged ability to copyright a
word, or the legal significance of a lapsed trademark to either
contact snoopdave
privately or leave a comment on this blog entry.
Update: Erin
Clerico has publicly apologized on his weblog and in my
comments. Dave Johnson has added a link to Weblogger on his
site. It looks like peace has been restored. In the
process, Erin says something on his weblog that does seem
to be backed up by the comments I have seen so far is:
One thing you can't say is that I offer a lousy service. I work
my ass off to run Weblogger and support my clients, often putting
20 hour days to make sure every request for service and support
gets fulfilled, and I doubt you could get any of them to trash me.
Or maybe you could. It does not matter, people vote with their feet
and I have seen no cancellations so far.
I was wrong. You all are right. I have rescinded my ill conceived threat. You got this note ( I thought I CC'd you on it from over an hour ago but I see no mention of it here as of now.
The problem has been corrected by the community, so the system works.
Now the dark side of this community momentum may continue to tear us to shreds but I am sure my clients are satisfied that we offer a good service and they know that I am really just a hard working guy that tries to keep his company afloat and everyone happy.
So have fun, I know it is just human nature when the mob gets rolling like this. If anyone has anything nice to say about me publicly then now would be the time.
We are a group of small charities that simply couldn't function online without erin and weblogger and hey I often rant and throw my toys out of the pram on Fridays. We have tried other ISP's and there's no comparison. Hurting weblogger, as some are hinting, might inevitably hurt us. We all live and learn eh?
Don't blame the mob mentality. You brought this upon yourself when you started making stupid threats. A quick call to counsel before taking action could have saved you the egg on your face.
As for something nice to say, I'll give you credit for publicly admitting you were wrong.
It sounds like it's time for some calm, fellows. I'm a new customer of Weblogger, and happy with the support. I'd hate to see damage to it. EC has apologized; what more can a person do? Let's get back to what we came for. TD
While I still find the entire episode disconcerting, I applaud Erin and Weblogger.com for not only quickly understanding that a mistake was made, but having the class to apologize for it publicly.
I just stumbled on this rant over weblogger vs. rollerblogger. Erin had every right to defend the weblogger name. You don't need to own a trademark to do that. It boils down to showing that how you've been using and marketing the name and the investment behind it. I will take sides with Weblogger though- as a happy customer of theirs. And speaking of bullies, Rafe Colburn's comments are totally unjustifiable. They are potentially more harmful than anything said so far and have absolutely no basis whatsoever, except to show a knee jerk reaction. It's Rafe's personal opinion versus 100+ satisfied customers with weblogger. I think Rafe should rescind his comments and leave weblogger alone.