Oolite Bulletins

Found the Oolite.ca website by accident. Also has a twitter account. (I'm not linking, see below)
Seems to be a newly started Canadian company. No idea what they are doing, but the privacy statement on their website is not to my liking. Looks like they intend to harvest personal information and sell it on.

Hmmm....

Looks like data-mining doesn't it? Nothing to do with us and unlikely to effect us in any way, but annoying that they chose that name. Short of buying-up every 'oolite' domain there's nothing we can do to stop other people/groups/companies from using the title. Has anyone thought about/looked into registering 'Oolite' as a trademark or similar.

Smivs wrote:

Looks like data-mining doesn't it? Nothing to do with us and unlikely to effect us in any way, but annoying that they chose that name. Short of buying-up every 'oolite' domain there's nothing we can do to stop other people/groups/companies from using the title. Has anyone thought about/looked into registering 'Oolite' as a trademark or similar.

Given that oolite is also a type of rock (containing small fossilised sea shells I believe) - I don't suppose it could be copyrighted anyway...

Words like Oolite, that have a meaning, can be registered when used as a name in a specific context. Hence apple the fruit, Apple Computers and Apple Records. The two latter are registered.

In this case, if they register Oolite in a computer related setting, they could theoretically claim rights within that domain if it overlaps with Oolite.

(My 1K post )

Gimi wrote:

(My 1K post)

Cool... here's to the next 1,000!

You may be overlooking the whole can of worms of (not) having a proper license from Mr. David Braben...

Cmdr. Maegil wrote:

You may be overlooking the whole can of worms of (not) having a proper license from Mr. David Braben...

Yes and no, that one has been debated quite recently and I am, as most of us are, aware of it. I had no intention of reopening that can. I just wanted to point at another potential issue. I doubt this one will cause any problems, but there is also the issue of the somewhat iffy privacy statement on the site. Not something I would want to be associated with, even by name only. Not much we can do though.

There could be anything behind that login screen. Marketing, advertising, bespoke jewellery, atrocity or chicken fancying.

The fact their vetting the log ons means they a) want specific people or b) they want anyone but make it look exclusive.

Worth watching just in case.