1. main@beta.groups.io

moderated Re: Can't create a freecycle group #bug

Dave Wade
 

Jim,

Where I live, we have both Freecycle and Freegle. Freegle was started in the
uk because some folks didn't agree with some Freecycle policies. e.g. Living
Creatures are not allowed on Freecycle but they are and anything legal is OK
on Freegle.
Whilst Freegle got off to good start it now seems to have withered and
almost died. I believe that both started by using Yahoo groups but now they
have their own dedicated systems. Freecycle is trademarked and groups have
to be properly affiliated and use the Freecycle systems, so I believe it is
correct to refuse to create groups with Freecycle in the name. I suspect
existing groups were migrated from the existing Yahoo groups but I am not
sure why they haven't been migrated to the Freecycle platform.

Given the reasons behind the creating of Freegle I suspect some kind of
internal politics, but I am sure that Freecycle will claim "ownership" of
any group that purports to use part of its name and offer re-cycling
services.....

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: main@beta.groups.io <main@beta.groups.io> On Behalf Of Jim Fisher
Sent: 21 October 2020 21:15
To: main@beta.groups.io
Subject: Re: [beta] Can't create a freecycle group #bug

Some time ago quite a lot of "Freecycle" groups in UK decided they wanted
to break away from the parent organisation. Presumably to avoid such legal
issues, they call themselves "Frregle" instead of "Freecycle". So far as I
know
(I cannot guarantee it) the name "Freegle" is not subject to any
trademark,
so that may the the way for such groups to go here.

Jim Fisher

On 21 Oct 2020 at 7:48, Mark Fletcher wrote:

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:12 PM Duane <txpigeon@gmail.com> wrote:

Someone on GMF is having problems (re)creating a freecycle group so
they can move from Yahoo. It appears that if the word freecycle is
in either the email/name or in the title, it will return a "That
address is not valid." error. I know there are over 50 existing
groups with freecycle in the group name, so don't understand what the
problem could be.

Groups.io has received letters from a law firm apparently representing
the Freecycle trademark holder in the UK, stating that a particular
group with freecycle in the name is infringing on their trademark. I
have not yet asked that group to change their name, but I may have to.
To head off any new issues, no more groups with freecycle in their
name. Note, I have no idea if the demand is legally valid or not.
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