forum.freeciv.org

Of the domains "humanitas.org", "librehumanitas.org", and "humanitaslibre.org" only the last one was available. (Though the latin word is 'liber' I think 'libre' works better, and is better understood). You can tell that I like this one, as I just registered the domain just in case - we are not going to lose it to someone else while we consider what to do. I'm not going to throw money to every suggestion that comes up...

Then again, using word that translates as "Civilization" that's trademarked name of the game of similar nature should probably be avoided (IANAL but trademark is not about the exact letters used in the name, but also translations can be considered trademark violation).

It feels odd to me that our international trademark law is so strict. For my limited knowledge, there is some tolerance.
"Civilization" is a natural, non-artificial English word and I remember reading that natural words may not be "owned", in contrast with synthetic words. I would like the opinion of a lawyer on this matter. In italian, for example, I know a couple of online forums frequented by professional accountants where you can ask simple legal questions for free (http://www.giorgiotave.it/forum/fisco-e-leggi/ , http://www.alverde.net/forum/fisco-tasse-e-leggi/).

In this regard I would even wonder if we could rename the project right with the "devil's" name: Civilization. After all, I think there isn't a more appropriate word to say it. Aren't we trying to find a name which is the closest to "civilization", but that is not "civilization"?

From uspto.gov I see that the words "civilization" and "civilisation" were registered by two different entities. (http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=s ... tam93v.1.1).

Beside, the word "humanitas" is already trademarked too (http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f= ... 893w11.2.6).
Do you think that would prevent every person in the US and UE to use it, either for commercial or amateur purposes?

It's about the risk of people to confuse the two, so being in the same business matters too. Somebody may think that "Civilization, the computer game" is actually "Civilization, the computer game".

Aren't we trying to find a name which is the closest to "civilization", but that is not "civilization"?

No. While "Civilization" as a word describes us very well, we have not limited our options to similar words.

'Humanitas' does seem trademarked but it could still be used if coupled with another word like 'Liber' or 'Libre' or 'whatever'.
The Humanitas I found in the thread supplied by Davide shows a lot of 'Humanitas this' and 'that Humanitas'

Regarding the work related to changing the name, I figured out plan to make it doable. Instead of changing the name at once, we can first just add secondary name. Most places would still show "freeciv", with some rare places (client upon startup) both: "Freeciv-3: Foo of the Bar". Places where either name makes sense could be changed as we have time. We don't even need to decide about the name change to start on that road. We can leave the two-name model permanant, or to make the secondary name as primary one as we want.

For today's name suggestion I started thinking from the "human history" perspective. As the game models entire world, everything human race has done, all paths, are there. Even more importantly, there's multiple paths, strategies, for players to take during the game. Not all crossroads are within game world, paths are also defined by all the server settings and rulesets. So, "Human Paths" is the best name I've invented today (and the contrast with "Animal Trails" is intentional)

We could also go for "Historia Terrarum" (Earth's history). The domain historiaterrarum.org seems to be unused. Alternatively, if we want to stay with the "paths", we cold use "Viae Hominum" (Paths of Humans). The domain viaehominum.org doesn't seem to be taken either.

Liber is also means book. So it would be strange to use it.

Sarilho1 wrote:Liber is also means book. So it would be strange to use it.

And "liberi" means children.

@ cazfi: +1 for the intriguing reasoning. I like the proposed name.

Though I remain open to other propositions too, perhaps a little shorter than Human Paths.
(I believe I'm raptured by the one-word Civilization )