“Would-be copiers know launching a competing product or service will be at the mercy of community members witnessing the conception of the original idea. Original ideas remain the property of the originator, and it becomes a lot harder to ’steal’ ideas from an originator when you’re up against a loyal and passionate community.

The benefits of community backing are priceless. What does your business have; a passionate community or a much less valuable customer base?”

Preach it dude, I’m with you…

FactoryJoe posts onWhy BarCamp is a Community Mark at FactoryCity, and in the process makes a specious comment on trademark law. Responding to my claim that “trademark laws are designed to protect consumers, not ensure a revenue stream for companies…

So I’ll ask two questions:

1. Can you give an example where trademark law - NOT patents or copyright - has been used to stifle innovation or damage the interests of consumers (and no, the O’Reilly spat can’t be used - the facts of the case aren’t exactly clear, especially if you read Tim O’Reilly’s response).

2. If trademark law was removed from the statute books tomorrow, what would be the consequences?

Cory posted a well-written piece, where he makes some good points, and tries very hard to walk a strait line… but he can’t do it with all that Foo Camp Kool-Aid on-board! His fan-boy intoxication (and perhaps conflicts-of-interest) were really showing. I was very disappointed. Sounds like he just talked to John B or someone, heard it was “all settled” and incorrectly reported that, without checking. When he posted, most people following the story were aware that the issue had not been “resolved amicablyâ€? and permission had not yet been “grantedâ€? as Cory incorrectly reported.

It’s a shame O’reilly’s corporate culture isn’t robust enough to guide them through a more reasonable course of action when Daddy’s gone. The C&D letter was an unfortunate, and perhaps understandable as a mistake. However, O’Reilly’s rude, clumsy, and ham-fisted response, shocked us all, as it seemed to contradict the basic principles of Web 2.0. This leaves many of us wondering if these people have any real clue about what it is they are hyping.

Tim’s back, and apparently not ready yet to come close to reversing course.

Hopefully we’ll see some good come from all this. It was a great demonstration of the RISKS involved in sending C&D letters. Web 2.0 has now been exposed as an empty buzz-mark, and has likely been tarnished beyond repair.

See yah at BarCamp - SF with APIs in hand.