Issue Tracker, name change

[Zrax]

As some may have noticed when coming in here, libPlasma has now been renamed. The biggest issue here was that libPlasma is too close to libplasma (note the lower-case p), which is a KDE4 package. Also, with the name change comes a Google-Code issue tracker since I'm getting lost trying to keep track of bugs and feature requests on my own ^_^. So the two together are now on libHSPlasma (HS for HeadSpin) on the gcode page linked to at the top of this forum. I will, of course, still read bug reports and feature requests here, but hopefully I'll be able to keep them mirrored on there too

[diafero]

Google code? So I need a Google account to report a bug/feature request there?

Were there any changes to the SVN?

[Paradox]

The SVN remains hosted by Zrax (and that is unlikely to change).

You will need to update to the latest version to get the name changes though. (If you use make install, you want to make uninstall before updating!)

[Branan]

I'll update my CMake files for the name change after work today.

Should I post them as a feature request, or keep them on the forum?

[Paradox]

If you post them on the tracker, it might be easier to keep track of revisions to them, and "patch the patches" so to speak rather than uploading a full set of patches for each change.

[ddb174]

While you're changing the name anyway, you may wish to choose one without those trademark issues. Especially since libplasma competes with Plasma over a (perhaps small) subset of functionality, that's a big no-no.

[Branan]

While you're changing the name anyway, you may wish to choose one without those trademark issues. Especially since libplasma competes with Plasma over a (perhaps small) subset of functionality, that's a big no-no.

I just did a USPTO trademark search. There are no active trademarks related to computers or games on the word "Plasma".

[ddb174]

That doesn't matter; trademarks don't have to be registered. Being registered affects the law regarding them, but not in a way that really helps here.

[Branan]

That doesn't matter; trademarks don't have to be registered. Being registered affects the law regarding them, but not in a way that really helps here.

The KDE E.V. does not appear to claim trademark on Plasma. There's no indication on any of their plasma pages of such a claim. Even if they did, the text describing libHSPlasma makes it clear it has nothing to do with desktop environments. Additionally, it's clear on both this forum and the google page that the author has nothing to do with the KDE E.V. or any of its projects. Chance of confusion is near zero.

Cyan Worlds may or may not lay claim to Plasma as a trademark for their engine. Since there's no public website, we can't really know. Since the engine isn't really marketed openly there is little chance from confusion, and as above it's fairly clear there is no direct association with the company (in this case, Cyan Worlds). The chance of confusion is higher here, and may become even higher once Cyan finally released the Plasma source code. However, If Cyan releases the code as "Plasma" and then enforces a trademark, that would severely restrict the open source idea.

On top of that, This project has been around for over a year now. Cyan certainly knows it exists, and in that time they've both created a Plasma-based game for a 3rd party and re-launched their own Plasma-based project. Obviously they could, in the future, change their minds on allowing use of the Plasma name, but this whole community is based around "Hope Cyan doesn't change their minds", so trying to say that's a problem for this particular project seems silly to me. Yes, they shut down h'uru, but a lot has changed since then regarding Cyan's attitude towards fan involvement.

[teedyo]

Additionally; plasma is a dictionary word which makes it difficult(although not impossible) to trademark.