I find it ironic that all of the confusion and controversy around both the terms "open source" (and "free software") have highlighted the importance and justifi

I find it ironic that all of the confusion and controversy around both the terms "open source" (and "free software") have highlighted the importance and justification of trade marks. What these movements could really benefit from are legally-protected trade descriptors that mean exactly what the originator means, and nothing different. But instead the internet is full of endless arguments about what these words mean, because FSF/OSI didn't have the foresight (or desire?) to advocate for unique trademarkable names. OSI made a mistake when they borrowed the term "Open Source" from the intelligence community and RMS made a mistake when he presumed that everyone on the planet would understand that "free as in beer" wasn't what he meant. Ultimately, while these groups were had great thought about software licensing, they weren't great with communication, branding, or marketing. I think we'd all be better off if we just started using "OSI Open Source" where that was what was actually meant. Trying to redefine words or phrases with existing connotations is a futile exercise.