Re: What's the story behind the camel?

Basically because O'Reilly has been doing animal covers on their computer books for quite some years. When the first ("pink") Programming Perl went to print, a camel was choosen.

Not everyone is very happy with this association. The association is trademarked after all, and it does serve a commercial interest (note for instance that non O'Reilly Perl books don't carry camels).

Abigail

Comment on Re: What's the story behind the camel?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: What's the story behind the camel? by jacques (Priest) on May 12, 2003 at 02:53 UTC
Not everyone is very happy with this association. The association is trademarked after all, and it does serve a commercial interest (note for instance that non O'Reilly Perl books don't carry camels). Indeed, I think there is a Perl6 RFC on a Perl mascot because of the trademark. Sort of ironic that Perl, a shining star in the open source movement, is associated with a mascot that no one can use without permission from a company.	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: What's the story behind the camel? by barbie (Deacon) on May 13, 2003 at 11:33 UTC
I don't think it's ironic. AFAIK O'Reilly only object to the use the camel image when its used to the detriment of Perl, which to my mind is a fair point. Any individual or company holding a trademark would feel the same way. O'Reilly happened to have copyrighted it because it was their book that was published and used that image. Had Wrox or Addison Wesley or some other Publishing house published the book, I'm sure they would have pretty much done the same. O'Reilly have a healthy attitude to Open Source IMO, and I would rather a company with clout protect Open Source, than a group of individuals with little or no money to support any infringements, and very little weight in a court to do anything about it anyway. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Barbie Birmingham Perl Mongers Web Site: http://birmingham.pm.org/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~	[reply]