Sparkfun lawsuit

[galannthegreat]

Read this, it's just plain ridiculous:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/news.php?id=300

I think we, as a robotics community should support our friends down at SparkFun.

P.S. I'm surprised they chose a company that serves to hackers of all types worldwide.



admin edit: modified subject line to be more reflective

[Weird Fishes]

That’s total crap, and there’s no way it’ll stand up anywhere. SPARC <-> Sparkfun? Gimme a break. Did you just crawl out from under a rock? Or do you work for Sun? Oh, wait...

The funiest part is when they say that they sell the same products.  

[Spoil9]

It doesn't cost the law firm anything to send paperwork to Sparkfun for trademark infringement. BUT, the law firm can charge Sparc a lot of money for doing its job. The economy sucks and lawyers need to justify being paid $100K a year.  Atleast that is my first guess.

[galannthegreat]

It also seems that now SPARC's site is now infected with viruses... Go figure, you tick off a hacker community, and you in turn shall be hacked!!!

[Weird Fishes]

It also seems that now SPARC's site is now infected with viruses... Go figure, you tick off a hacker community, and you in turn shall be hacked!!!

I don’t particularly like that statement.

[galannthegreat]

Hmmm, that's interesting. I am just pointing out something that I noticed... and came to the conclusion that being a support of a hacker based community that someone would do that. I did not mean to offend anyone in saying that.

[Weird Fishes]

The word hacker represents something to be proud of. The word you are looking for is cracker. Sparkfun is most definitely not a community of crackers.

[Admin]

I just heard about it through /.

It appears multiple SPARC sites are now banned by Firefox and Chrome. Amusing.

My prediction is that once higher ups and engineers at SPARC hear what the lawfirm has done, it'll all be retracted in embarrassment.

If I was SparkFun, I'd bypass the lawfirm and go to SI directly.


btw, SoR got a letter like this once. Apparently I infringed upon a copyright by accident and got a lawsuit threat. I bypassed the 'lawfirm' and chatted with the company owner, and got things settled real fast at a very mature level.

[galannthegreat]

Thanks Admin for modifying my post to be more reflective. I was posting it in shock, so I thought it to be suitable.

I just heard about it through /.

It appears multiple SPARC sites are now banned by Firefox and Chrome. Amusing.

My prediction is that once higher ups and engineers at SPARC hear what the lawfirm has done, it'll all be retracted in embarrassment.

If I was SparkFun, I'd bypass the lawfirm and go to SI directly.


btw, SoR got a letter like this once. Apparently I infringed upon a copyright by accident and got a lawsuit threat. I bypassed the 'lawfirm' and chatted with the company owner, and got things settled real fast at a very mature level.

Really? and it got resolved that easily? Wow, it just goes to show that on some aspects of the spectrum for some people it must only be about the money. I bet the guys down at SparkFun will definately like to consider this, because if a lawsuit like that goes on both parties suffer (well... SparkFun would, due to the other company being a multi-million dollar company).  But I sure hope nothing bad occurs from this situation.

[TrickyNekro]

It also seems that now SPARC's site is now infected with viruses... Go figure, you tick off a hacker community, and you in turn shall be hacked!!!

I don’t particularly like that statement.

God fearing americans... Man... They have been hitting our community so hard, First with that lead-free thing (which also affected small companies)
(Lead - Free products isn't a health concern, we probably drink more lead that we will ever solder but it's an antihacking tool)
Now, they also hit this community with this...
Hackers are the only free voice that we have against these companies.... I'm not for the hacking a site, but they can not be
let partying on our money.... period.....

[Admin]

God fearing americans... Man... They have been hitting our community so hard, First with that lead-free thing (which also affected small companies)

Actually, lead-based products are legal in the US. RoHS is a European thing

Really? and it got resolved that easily?

Yea, the owner told it to me straight what the problem was. After talking with him, I 100% agreed with him.

The lawfirm however just attacked and threatened me like a 5-year old. Lawfirms really should just be a last resort.

[chelmi]

(Lead - Free products isn't a health concern, we probably drink more lead that we will ever solder but it's an antihacking tool)

 

I've read some misinterpretation of RoHS directives on hobbyist forums, but this is the worst...

1. As admin said, it's European.
2. You can use lead-free solder. It's a little less comfortable, but totally doable with the right tools.
3. You can still buy non lead-free solder legally, but you cannot sell products that contains are not completely lead-free. If we see less and less leaded solder in stores it's just because
the industry is moving toward lead-free everywhere. They won't produce leaded solder just for hobbyist...
4. The main objectives of RoHS is:
      - reduce the rejection of hazardous substance in the environment through , which could eventually end up in your water, food, ...
      - to protect people who assemble electronic products (NOT hobbyist, unless you solder 8 hours/day. In this case you're not a hobbyist IMHO :p)
    But it is NOT meant to protect direct consumers of electronic products. How often do you see a directly accessible circuit board in a product?

There are other (semi-serious) concerns with RoHS, see the wikipedia article; but this conspiracy theory is just BS... sorry to be harsh but this is
not the first time that the RoHS directives are completely misunderstood by people in this forum.

Chelmi.

[GearMotion]

(Lead - Free products isn't a health concern, we probably drink more lead that we will ever solder but it's an antihacking tool)

 

I've read some misinterpretation of RoHS directives on hobbyist forums, but this is the worst...

1. As admin said, it's European.
2. You can use lead-free solder. It's a little less comfortable, but totally doable with the right tools.
3. You can still buy non lead-free solder legally, but you cannot sell products that contains are not completely lead-free. If we see less and less leaded solder in stores it's just because
the industry is moving toward lead-free everywhere. They won't produce leaded solder just for hobbyist...
4. The main objectives of RoHS is:
      - reduce the rejection of hazardous substance in the environment through , which could eventually end up in your water, food, ...
      - to protect people who assemble electronic products (NOT hobbyist, unless you solder 8 hours/day. In this case you're not a hobbyist IMHO :p)
    But it is NOT meant to protect direct consumers of electronic products. How often do you see a directly accessible circuit board in a product?

There are other (semi-serious) concerns with RoHS, see the wikipedia article; but this conspiracy theory is just BS... sorry to be harsh but this is
not the first time that the RoHS directives are completely misunderstood by people in this forum.

Chelmi.

Including yourself. Mainly because you are unclear when you say "you" in:

you cannot sell products that contains are not completely lead-free.

Which by itself is poor grammar.

"You" in your statement is people inside a RoHS-affected country? Or outside? You are not clear.

I (not in a RoHS country) can sell lead products into a RoHS country under certain circumstances. The products I sell to RoHS countries contain no lead and state such. I can sell "leaded or unleaded" in the U.S.

[Admin]

Stick to the topic, guys


btw, you can sell leaded products to Europe, but only if you're located outside of Europe.

[GearMotion]

Many may not agree, but SPARC is acting appropriately, if not overly aggressively.

Nike, as an example, wants to protect the trademark ("Nike") and has to act to protect it. If it is aware of a company called NighKey that makes a little pouch that holds a key and attaches to your shoe (just making the product up for the sake of illustration), then if they fail to act, it weakens their brand. NighKey might get a letter (that in itself shows that Nike acted) but nothing more may come of it.

Yes, you might think that this is an affront to SparkFun, but it would be a shame to support a vigilante attack on a website.

[Weird Fishes]

I sure hope you made a typographical error in your first sentence, because it doesn’t make much sense.

That said, I think most of the outrage is due to the letter containing very weak arguments (like the one I mentioned above, where they claimed that SPARC and Sparkfun dealt with the same products).

I agree with you that supporting a website attack is wrong, unprofessional and immature.

[Razor Concepts]

I shall make a web site called Society O' Robots

not of, o'

 

[GearMotion]

I sure hope you made a typographical error in your first sentence, because it doesn’t make much sense.

Let me rephrase.

Many people on this site (SoR) might not agree with my statement. I believe SPARC acted appropriately. Perhaps too aggressively, perhaps they over reached. But all they did was send a letter.

SPARC informed SparkFun that SPARC wants to protect the SPARC trademark. A judge decides if the claims are valid, or if they are nonsense.

Even if nonsense, SPARC _acted_ to defend the SPARC name.

I shall make a web site called Society O' Robots

not of, o'

If anmin does nothing, then when I make "Society of Cool Robots" and he wants to sue, I can point at the fact that since he allowed Society O' Robots without challenging them, then he hasn't got much of a case. He didn't act to protect his trademark.

I just feel that this is a lot of todo about a single letter.

I'm pro SparkFun. But I don't hate SPARC and their lawyers for their action.

[chelmi]

Including yourself. Mainly because you are unclear when you say "you" in:

you cannot sell products that contains are not completely lead-free.

Which by itself is poor grammar.

"You" in your statement is people inside a RoHS-affected country? Or outside? You are not clear.

I (not in a RoHS country) can sell lead products into a RoHS country under certain circumstances. The products I sell to RoHS countries contain no lead and state such. I can sell "leaded or unleaded" in the U.S.

My bad. I meant you as a hobbyist who still want to buy leaded solder in a RoHS country. It was meant to show that saying that RoHS directives were anti-hacker measure didn't make any sense.

English is not my first language, and it shows

Chelmi.

[GearMotion]

Chelmi.

Although not on topic, I apologize. Didn't meant to be harsh personally. Just that your clarification was itself unclear and could lead ( leeeed ) to argument that "no lead products can be sold". Thanks for the clarification.

Back to being on topic...