Thanks, done

[Sigh]
hehe...so..we have limited time to raise funds..as well as find an affordable method..and be able to accomplish it in that span of time...
ok...welllll
I believe I've worked out an affordable solution that can help.
Proper t-shirt printing will not be cheap...silk-screening, laser or other methods..
As well shipping to whatever destination likewise would add to price..
as well as specific size and or colours of shirts...as well the quality of the shirt helps...one does not need the "finest" quality ...an average quality shirt (at least) and up helps..regardless the process...and a decent shirt (that doesn't come in a pack-o-ten ) isn't exactly cheap.
So all told out of a 40 euro high end (estimate thrown by a fellow member) for donating and getting a shirt...roughly 1/3 of that donation would be cost...forget even shipping costs.

So in true Macgyver fashion...
and in following in our DIY (with help of course) philosophy...
And to pinch every possible penny and yet get the best value and quality...
I have an answer that cuts the cost significantly...
and everyone is happy
took a while...but found a product locally...
Get ready for it...
Flashback to the 1970's...
but upgraded from analog to digital...

Laser printed iron-on's
with applied intense heat (clothes iron)...
the plasticized inks melt and weld with whatever fabric...
mondo-weird frankly...
but cool considering any tone, hue and pattern is executed laser flawlessly.

It means...
I can utilize a faster more efficient, less costly process than silk screening...it isn't dependent on "getting enough orders"
I use my studio's uber-printer (do it for posters, prints and such)..
I print off what is needed...rough cut them...toss them into hard ..flat...photo shipping envelopes (MUCH cheaper for shipping).
Once received ..just grab your favourite shirt and your iron (If you don't have one...visit your mom..Mom's always got an iron.) and
Bam everyone gets a shirt.

The base cost breakdown

The supplies and inks and the few pennies on recalib., maintenance and machine wear and tear and cost per printed unit of about say 10" x 7" ...would run me about $12 in CDN pesos...(which is um..8-9 euros I think? to put it in an understandable perspective for you continentals )
So size 5"x3.5" would be half the cost.
Or half that size 5"x3.5" to 2.5"x1.75" ..half that cost..
that is for lighter coloured t-shirts...
the cost in specialty patch paper and the consumption of almost triple the inks for dark t-shirts means effectively whatever size the patch is...for a lighter patch...effectively double that price in cost for say colour on a black t-shirt.
(Does that make sense? sorry trying to keep proportions, supplies, cost in cdn and euros has me befuddled...I'm beat..didn't sleep last night for goin' to a show and staying up all night afterwards to get all this done and up here ...I'm going for a nap now..)

In all ...this is a very efficient and cost effective method of making t-shirt logos I must say...

I imagine that ...so we don't get someone donating "just" a euro..to take advantage...(heaven forbid that would happen) ..perhaps a minimum donation of..."_ _ _" whatever...that way... it is incentive to donate something at least a bit more substantial ...
Shipping from my locale to wherever is the receivers cost of course...I can't factor that in universally without everyone paying for everyone else's shipping regardless where they live (and I don't think that is fair...)
So yeah..
..
the first photos were the acid test.
I needed to see what works and what doesn't as well as push the limit of applied heat and time to see result and if it would be too difficult for literally anyone to do their own shirt...
My results are that anyone can apply this successfully.
There are limits to the process..
The types of patch paper for dark shirts (black, forest green, etc) are much more expensive ...like double...for applying light colour to a dark shirt...as well ya gotta do the process of application properly...no deviation.
So here are the test runs...
1stly ..I figured a wee bit of humour in a red t-shirt with the breast logo being a take on the "maemo community update cssu"..and altered to "maemo community red-shirt brigade" after the humourous expendable star trek security officers.
I was hoping that this with the white lettering "RED-SHIRT" would show up decently on a red t-shirt..

It did not ..

I penned it in to the space where it should be..
sorry for the glare...also there was some slight fraying or fragmentation at the edges..some dissemination of the patch...can't use an iron for too long...just a couple of minutes of even distributed pressed heat..and pulling it off the waxed ironing paper before completely cooled also doesn't help...however it did properly weld with the fabric ...still
Subsequently ..using this lettering instead..

worked fine..
Test number two...how much iron heat and for how long can impact the patch..deliberate use of an iron at it's hottest for over 4 minutes resulted in some bleed-through from the waxed paper backing which is used upon peeling off the patch and placed upon the top of said patch to stop (of course) the iron melting the patch.
this is the result. (the camera pouch was to give some idea of scale...terrible idea I should have used a fabric ruler instead.. )

Finally after a few runs it is quite obvious to see there is a decent room for success by anyone...It just boils down to the exact and proper application of moving the iron..not fast but not slowly ..for 3-4 minutes at most...then letting it cool completely ..results in...
this ...


Now ...just off the top of my head here..
speaking of donating incentives...
I don't think it could just be applied to that..
project incentives...like...oooh...
I dunno..successful porting of something like gtkgep for our devices ..
Why a gesture so magnanimous by a kind soul ..would probably have me actually shipping at "my" cost a whole shirt and all to the lucky bugger who finished it first
So yeah ...there we go...it doesn't have to be "just" a donation reward incentive..
It could be project reward incentive...

or could hold a raffle at some point ..that'll raise funds..
tickets could be a modest sum 5 euros or so each...
1st, 2nd and subsequent lesser prizes could be ...well whatever...but people would surely buy raffle tickets in the hopes of winning...[insert whatever fabulous toys, devices, prizes here] ...for the modest investment of a few bucks ...(advert-line)..."Who knows? ..you may just win [a huge dollar value in stuff] for throwing down 20 euros in tickets!" ...lotta people would I'm sure ..in the off-chance hope of winning cool-sh#t. I know I probably would buy a ticket.

Y'know the old saying ...' Ya can't play if you don't win.." ..
um...other way around... or sumthin'...

...Anyway...mull it over guys...

If someone thinks of a more efficient, time saving, non-prohibitive low-cost method that is better..
I'm more than happy to go with that instead..

im in for 20euro

I don't think we care if there's a Chinese toy with the same name. In fact, given the TM limitations we already have, such a toy could co-exist already with no issues. The concern is (IMHO) that said toy becomes a sensation, and the company sues us in an attempt to get the domain from us.

Mounting a legal defense when you have a valid and current registered trademark is quite minimal. You basically have to show up, say "we have this current and active trademark of X years", and the case is effectively closed. Without that it becomes a much more involved matter, and is far from guaranteed. Just ask the guy that owned the Groupon website before Groupon existed.

Personally, I feel this ounce of prevention is way better than trying to having to cure it later. Will we need to? I don't know. But is it worth the gamble to not spend the funds for another 10 years?

I'd say renew with the minimal set needed (eg EU only). I don't see the advantage of registering in the US, China, etc. Holding legal ownership in the EU, where the servers are, should be enough to prevent any problems. It also forces jurisdiction to the EU, which means things will be easier to maintain by existing members in the long run.

There is big difference, he could lose it all for cybersquatting (much different, check wiki page) especially since:
his plans for non-existent business were pretty much the same as groupon, so yeah, ducks, duck em, but if they come up with open source system called maemo, even better, the more the merrier. We are over a decade old in this business with trademark (non-registered doesn't mean non-existent), worst case scenario we get free 250k instead of spending 2k, not going to argue any longer, feel free to fund lawyers/beaurocrats, I myself am not willing to chip in for this case (going to make a donation, but for other things, audits, infra, you name it, something that will actually benefit the community), still think it's kind of fear mongering: you heard about patent trolls, they might come up with trademark trolls and then we'll be fcked, really?

(edit: btw this is a text book case of cybersquatting gone right, he got 250k for website name, he didn't have history or business, we have both and both pretty solid, so yeah, I'm still unconvinced, but you do whatever you feel is right)

Thrown my two-bits in the pot..

The fury frog has done it's duty.
Another 20 quids on your account...

Sorry, but that's not how that works. There's no guarantee that we'll get $250K for anything. The real worst case is our trademarks expire, we fail to renew at all, and a company (like MS) comes along claiming they own the mark and/or want the domain, demanding we cease and desist, filing legal paperwork against us. At which point we have two options:

• Ask for compensation and hope they're feeling generous, then "move" and change the name/scheme/skin/logos. (Your $250K option, assuming they'll go for that.)
• Spend a boat load of money we don't have to fight it in court, hoping to win a counter suit and break even.

Note that in the $250K case, we would "win", but at the same time would lose the right to the domain and/or continuing to do what we're doing here for all intents and purposes.

By spending some funds now to renew the minimal set in just the EU (or even just Germany), if a company comes along later, we get to:

• Force the venue in which the legal battle is fought to a place we have actual people on the ground (eg Germany).
• Have a very minimal cost for defense, since with an active TM it's an open/closed case that almost any lawyer would take it on for free, and counter sue for their expenses.

I'd be willing to bet that a large chunk of that $250K "settlement" went toward legal expenses, since there were international court filings and such months before that agreement was reached. The guy involved probably walked away with very little in his pocket from this, instead being happy to not be in a crater of debt after initially holding out against a company with big pockets.

But hey, you believe what you want and I'll believe what I want. I'm good with pitching in some funds for what amounts to a 10 year insurance policy. If you're not, that's your call. If we get enough in time, hopefully, it will happen. If not, well, that will probably go into the kitty and hopefully be used to ward off lawyers later if needed.

Here's the donation state as of today:

Code:

mysql> 
mysql> select date, account, total_amount, currency from all_donations order by date;
+------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
| date       | account       | total_amount | currency |
+------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |         9.46 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | Deutsche Bank |        26.82 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |           15 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |           10 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-01 | PayPal        |           10 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-02 | PayPal        |        19.27 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-02 | PayPal        |        47.05 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-02 | Deutsche Bank |          100 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-03 | PayPal        |           25 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-03 | Deutsche Bank |           50 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-03 | Deutsche Bank |          100 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-04 | PayPal        |           20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-05 | PayPal        |           20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-06 | PayPal        |          150 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-06 | Deutsche Bank |           50 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-07 | PayPal        |           20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-07 | PayPal        |           25 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-08 | PayPal        |           20 | CAD      |
| 2015-07-08 | PayPal        |         95.9 | GBP      |
| 2015-07-08 | Deutsche Bank |           20 | EUR      |
| 2015-07-08 | Deutsche Bank |          200 | EUR      |
+------------+---------------+--------------+----------+
21 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select sum(total_amount * exchange_rate) as calculated from all_donations;
+--------------------+
| calculated         |
+--------------------+
| 1061.6399999863002 |
+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

just sent 20