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Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

deno.com

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Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#51

Post by simonh »

op7 wrote: post #46
Illniyar wrote: post #42

I don't get the hate here. This is practically a public service and Deno doesn't have any direct or obvious material gains from this. Definitely not more then dozens of other projects (from Chrome to Node.js to Tutorial sites and any company offering something with JS) So what if they are a VC backed company? If you perform a public service, it's fair to ask the public for money. No one is suggesting this money would…

They don't have the right to do this. Oracle safeguards the JavaScript trademark against abuse with it's powerful legal teams and has a track record of good stewardship. These guys want to hijack their property and let it loose to the wild west. Who knows what unethical actors will do with it..

Freedom is all very well until someone decides they are free to come and take your stuff, or lie about you, or pretend to be you.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#52

Post by cryptos »

The simple solution is to write everything (for the browser) in TypeScript instead and treat JavaScript only as the compilation target noone actually talks about. And compiling to JavaScript might also become a thing of the past with Webassembly. So, I think we shouldn't care about JavaScript as a name.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#54

Post by Sammi »

jon-wood wrote: post #17

It's certainly a bold move for a private company that wants to take a behemoth like Oracle to court over something that mostly benefits themselves to solicit $200K of donations from random people in order to so. I look forward to seeing how that plays out for them.

> mostly benefits themselves

This is incorrect. All users of Javascript benefit.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#56

Post by bambax »

ozgung wrote: post #41

According to Wikipedia, JavaScript first appeared on December 4th, 1995, as a part of Netscape Navigator. The name was LiveScript in beta versions. Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle) made the application for the trademark[1] on December 1st, 1995. The trademark was issued on May 6th, 1997. [1] https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75026640&caseType=SERIAL_...

I have always wondered why Google didn't buy Sun? They propbably were at the time (and probably still are?) the biggest corporate users of both Java and JavaScript (which, of course, don't share anything beyond the name).

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#58

Post by skylurk »

billpg wrote: post #10

I kinda want Oracle to go further and insist that no-one can call it "JavaScript" any more. Let's all it "JS" and completely break from Java. "What does JS stand for?" "It stands for itself."

"What doesn't it stand for? It stands for commitment. It stands for audacity. It stands for courage in the face of..."

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#59

Post by Sammi »

r_lee wrote: post #47
Illniyar wrote: post #42

I don't get the hate here. This is practically a public service and Deno doesn't have any direct or obvious material gains from this. Definitely not more then dozens of other projects (from Chrome to Node.js to Tutorial sites and any company offering something with JS) So what if they are a VC backed company? If you perform a public service, it's fair to ask the public for money. No one is suggesting this money would…

Imagine the kind of media attention / clout they'll get for "beating Oracle" etc. They absolutely do get material gains from this, should they succeed. It'd be a much more legitimate effort if they were just asking people to raise funds for e.g. OpenJS to file suit etc.

Sure they benefit, but so do a lot of other people. Sound fair to ask everyone else to pitch in. Deno have already bankrolled this themselves for a while.

Re: Help us raise $200k to free JavaScript from Oracle

#60

Post by conartist6 »

op7 wrote: post #46
Illniyar wrote: post #42

I don't get the hate here. This is practically a public service and Deno doesn't have any direct or obvious material gains from this. Definitely not more then dozens of other projects (from Chrome to Node.js to Tutorial sites and any company offering something with JS) So what if they are a VC backed company? If you perform a public service, it's fair to ask the public for money. No one is suggesting this money would…

They don't have the right to do this. Oracle safeguards the JavaScript trademark against abuse with it's powerful legal teams and has a track record of good stewardship. These guys want to hijack their property and let it loose to the wild west. Who knows what unethical actors will do with it..

Most people just call the language "JS" cause Oracle doesn't own that trademark. That's why you wouldn't be able to have a JavascriptConf but we do have JSConf. This is a long-winded way of saying that we already know what people would do with the freedom to speak the name of the language and it's nothing worth fearmongering over...

It's for the courts to determine who had what rights, but it's Oracle that is credibly accused of greatly exceeding the rights given them under the law

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