The Future of NetSaint: Legal Woes

 First off, I apologize if you are receiving this message twice.  I  thought it best to send to both the -announce and -users lists to  reach the most number of people.  Anyway, on with things...  Most of you are probably aware of the recent legal mess I'm found  myself in over the use of the name "NetSaint".  To sum things up,  things look like they're coming to an end.  The attorneys for  WWDSI / Richard Carson & Associates are withdrawing their  demands that I stop using the name "NetSaint" as long as I place  disclaimers on the website (and other promotional / marketing  material) saying its not associated with their marks.  While this  resolution leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, it at least allows me to  continue using the name for the time being.    Unfortunately, this does not provide much protection in the long  run.  They were unable to assure me that they would not seek legal  action if WWDSI / Richard Carson & Associates decided to  expand upon their product line in the future.  Same goes if I altered  NetSaint to provide different services than it already does.  This has  left me quite bothered.  It essentially puts me in the seat of  someone who is working with a bomb strapped to their chest.   There's no telling when it'll go off, and I'm not too thrilled about  working on NetSaint under those conditions.  Taking this to court in hopes of resolution via a mediator or judge  was just too costly an option.  Typical cases like this can cost  anywhere from $25K - $100K, and that's if you win.  Unless I win  the lottery tomorrow, they're no way I'm going to spring for that tidy  chunk of beer money.  Anyway, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what to do from here  on out, and here's the deal...   0.0.7 will be the last version of NetSaint that I release.  I will work  to put out one or two more beta versions in order to make sure its  relatively stable before a final version, but I'm not going to wait too  long to do so.  After 0.0.7 is stable, I will not be releasing any new  versions of NetSaint.  Period.  Right now I'm in a major programming slump.  I don't know if its  due to the start of the summer, this legal mess, a normal burnout  cycle that I occassionally go through, or a combination of all of  them.  I honestly don't see myself working on any code for most or  all of the summer.  I'm guessing that I will pick up work on this  project again in late summer / early fall, but I honestly can't say  that I'll do that for sure.  If and when I decide to start coding on this project again, it will be  under a new name.  I've had a few ideas for names, but nothing has  been decided for sure yet.  Once a new name is picked, I won't be  releasing anything (documentation, code, whatever) until I've  started the process of registering a trademark for that name.  I'm  not willing to start a project under a new name only to find myself  in the same situation a year or two from now.  I have no idea how long I'll be able to maintain ownership of the  netsaint.org domain or how long I'll be able to use the name  "NetSaint".  The future doesn't seem to hold many promises right  now.  I would strongly advise you to grab beta versions as they're  released (as well as addons, etc.)  Even if you don't want to run  them right now, it would be wise to have them in the event nothing  is available for a few months.  Just a friendly heads-up...  Also remember that since the name "NetSaint" is rather volatile,  six months or a year from now it may not refer to the same  software you're using for monitoring now.  If something unfortunate  happens and "NetSaint" is no longer what it is now, look for a  "new" GPL'ed monitoring package at Freshmeat  (Best Open Source Software Development Software 2023).  If I release this code under a new  name, I'm not even going to be referencing the name "NetSaint"  anywhere, so you're going to have to look at the feature set and the  screenshots (which will look pretty much the same, save perhaps  some color scheme changes).  That's pretty much it for now.  Please understand, that I will not  pursue further legal steps to secure my ownership of the name  "NetSaint" (unless of course I win the Powerball sometime soon).   Also, if you send me email directly, don't expect a fast response  (or mabye even one at all).  My receive to send ratio for email is  around 20:1 lately.    PS:  Thanks to all of you who contributed to the defense fund.  I  received just over $1200, which will cover most of the costs I end  up incurring.  I still have a few weeks before I get my last invoice,  but they way things are looking, total dollars spent on this mess  will be around $1600.  At any rate, the contributions helped offset  the costs and I greatly appreciate it.  Thanks again.    Ethan Galstad NetSaint Developer --- Email:   netsaint@netsaint.org Website: https://www.netsaint.org/