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Kik (the company) wanted to publish an npm module using their trademarked company name[1]. As has long been npm's policy, they asked the trademark holder and t
by bsimpson 11y ago
Kik (the company) wanted to publish an npm module using their trademarked company name[1]. As has long been npm's policy, they asked the trademark holder and the author to work it out amicably. Azer handled the situation about as gracefully as you'd expect from someone who published a module without checking if the name was clear and rage-quit when that decision bit him, bitching about "corporations" and stranding the countless developers who (eventually) depended on one of his modules.
npm and Kik did most-everything right. The problem was in unpublishing already published tags. Once a tag is published, it shouldn't be able to be unpublished except in the most extenuating circumstances (perhaps a brand-new tag that inadvertently included PII). After a name changes hands, the new owner shouldn't be able to publish a new build in any of the major versions the previous owner tagged. Moreover, wholesale unpublishing modules shouldn't be allowed for the exact reasons this incident demonstrated. Based on npm's response, it sounds like they've learned that.
[1]: https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breaking-of-the-internet-3d4d2a83aa4d#.zgf76kuk3 https://medium.com/@mproberts/a-discussion-about-the-breakin...
- jsprogrammer 11y agoThe problem is that KIK (the company) has no registered trademark for this use. If they had, they (or you) could point to the specific registration that the `kik` project infringed upon. Any talk about trademarks is irrelevant (and npm even claims in this article that it had nothing to do with their decision). Additionally, the `kik` package now has this description: 'This package name is not currently in use, but was formerly occupied by a popular package. To avoid malicious use, npm is hanging on to the package name, but loosely, and we\'ll probably give it to you if you want it.' So...why did this happen again?
- bsimpson 11y agoThe first rule of open source is check if the name has any other popular uses (using, at the very least, Google and the USPTO). Whether or not Kik would have sued for trademark infringement is secondary - before publishing, the author should have searched for the name, and when he saw an established product using it, chosen something else. npm has never been secretive about its name collision policy.
- deciplex 11y agoWait, like to anyone who wants it? I wonder what would happen if Azer asked for it back, heh.
- dandelany 11y agoBecause Kik plans to `npm publish kik`, presumably a JS API or something. That is a stock robomessage, though granted, not a very good one under the circumstances.