Action
Sometimes in our society, actions are taken that cause alarm, and for the greater good the
masses should speak out about them. The leading cause of strife and opression in any society
can be traced back to the apathy of its people, and I for one am tired of being apathetic.
It's one thing to pound your fist on a table and demand comeupance, but another entirely to
speak out and possibly do something to bring this about. I have decided, in my
limited capabilities, to do just that. I will begin by speaking out to the corporate,
government, civil, or other bodies who would threaten to opress - even to the smallest
degree - the people of a free nation.
Following are the beginnings of my letter writing to these bodies - letters which will
remain publically available on my website to encourage others to follow suit and show these
large entities that there is strength in a thousand voices.
- Peng / AOL - 12 Oct 2002
The first offence. Peng, an open source application was designed to allow otherwise
unsupported users to dial into the AOL network in order to use their duly paid for
services. Rather than taking this in stride, AOL made the decision to retain legal
council and threaten the PENGAOL site with a Cease & Decist letter regarding the
use of the mark "AOL", claiming the use could confuse the public into believing this
was an officially sponsored endeavour. Consequently, Peng was forced to turn control
of their Pengaol domain over to AOL, and are now located at
a new home.
- PCI-SIG - 16 Dec 2003
A group representing PCI computer hardware device manufacturers has decreed that
Mr. Jim Boemler's use of their registered mark; the three letters P-C-I, is a
violation, and should not be allowed to continue. Mr. Boemler has, for the past
six years, maintained a freely available listing of PCI devices and their
corresponding PCI IDs; unique HEX identification strings used to determine the make
and model of PCI devices to allow detection and initialization of same. As a result
of this letter, the future of that database could be in grave danger of ceasing to
exist as we know it.