Cease and Desist from Watchfire

[marduk]

Hey guys,

As most of you know, I have not worked on linbot in quite a while.
The latest snapshop release was October '99.  I have been pretty
busy and had put the project on hold.

Well, today I talked with WatchFire http://www.watchfire.com/ the
distributers of Linkbot.  Linbot was originally based on Linkbot
when I first started working on it 3 years ago.  They told me that
they will be sending me a Cease and Desist and they want me to change
the name of the software.

Being that linbot is not a commercial product and that it is
explained on the web site as well as the documentation that linbot
is only a clone of Linkbot, I do not see how any reasonably educated
individual would be confused by the two programs.  I've never gotten
any emails from anyone thinking that linbot was Linkbot or vice versa.

I will be consulting with free software leaders out there about what
would be the best action for me to take.  But right now I want to
clarify that linbot is software distributed under the GPL and so
is Public software belonging to the People.  I want to emphasize this
because, although I have been the main contributer to the work, I
do not see myself having ownership of the software.  I believe this
is implied by the GPL itself, but I am no lawyer and so I would
like to say so explicitely.

If you enjoy linbot continue to use it.  If you feel safer you can
change the filenames and references to "linbot."

I'll keep you updated as events change.

marduk