Tony Iommi almost quit playing when he lost two of his fingertips in a workplace accident, but was convinced that he could learn to play with the remaining stumps after listening to Django Reinhardt who also lost the use of two of his fingers, but adapted his playing style.
Plus most of iommi is written while listening to Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules on repeat :P
It seems of questionable legality to blatantly use his name for your product.
Trademarks only apply within an industry.
I didn't say it's trademark violation. A person's name is not a trademark. It's about using someone's name to promote a product that the person is not associated with in any way.
Iommi is not the name of a band. The band's name is Black Sabbath. Tony Iommi is the name of a person, the guitar player of Black Sabbath.
I'm not following how or why a big deal is being made out of this. Tony Iommi does not own the name Iommi. He's not the only person in the world with that name. He doesn't get any sort of social or legal right that the name not be used for other things just because he's wealthy and famous.
> I'm not following how or why a big deal is being made out of this.
It's not a "big deal". The author and his project will very likely not even be noticed by Mr. Iommi and his legal representatives. I just made a comment, and it became a big argument only because people chose to argue with me.
> Tony Iommi does not own the name Iommi.
I never said he did. In fact, I just said in the comment you replied to that it's not a trademark violation.
> He's not the only person in the world with that name.
Irrelevant. It's obvious from the project, and has been confirmed by the author, that the allusion is specifically to Tony Iommi.
> He doesn't get any sort of social or legal right that the name not be used for other things just because he's wealthy and famous.
You're missing the point, because being famous is basically a prerequisite for providing a product endorsement. It's not that famous people have special rights but rather that an anonymous name provides no extra marketing value to a product.
Imagine if someone unrelated to Tony Iommi sold "Iommi Guitars". You think that wouldn't be a problem?
> Imagine if someone unrelated to Tony Iommi sold "Iommi Guitars". You think that wouldn't be a problem?
It would. Because that's the same domain. Making HTML tables and forms isn't even closely related. No matter how you look at it.
> Because that's the same domain.
You're again mistakenly thinking of trademark law. Toni Iommi is not a product but a person whose name is not trademarked. He doesn't have a "domain". He just happens to be famous for being a guitar player.
The issue with "Iommi Guitars" is that it gives the impression that Tony Iommi the person endorses those guitars. But Tony Iommi could endorse any product. For example, he endorses a perfume: https://www.nordstrom.com/s/tony-iommi-monkey-special-parfum... If someone not associated with Tony Iommi sold a "Tony Iommi Perfume" that would also be a problem, not because the name "Tony Iommi" is trademarked but rather because it gives the impression that Tony Iommi endorses the product when he does not.
Celebrity endorsements are valuable, and celebrities endorse lots of products that have nothing to do with the primary profession for which they are famous. The actor Paul Newman has a whole line of food products.
Moreover, it's very common nowadays for musicians to use computers heavily, so it wouldn't be surprising for them to get into programming too.
The project isn’t named tonyiommi, though. Iommi is the name of Tony Iommi’s solo music project, though.
Hmm, I don't think that's correct. The single "Gone" has written "IOMMI" on it, but I think that's a design flourish mostly. There is an artist named "IOMMI" on Spotify though: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7H9kxQfhfZ0kJ7IOD3CTAP?si=l9...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iommi_(album)
That's the name of an album though.
Yes, it is. It was also a project.
You mean like Django?
Already addressed in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45758830
I mean.. there are a lot of people with that name, and it's an homage.
> I mean.. there are a lot of people with that name
What are you saying here? You already admitted publicy that it was about Tony Iommi the guitarist of Black Sabbath and not anyone else with the name.
> it's an homage
Which of course directly contradicts the first clause of your sentence.
> You already admitted publicy that it was about Tony Iommi the guitarist of Black Sabbath and not anyone else with the name.
So that means that the only way that you can absolutely associate the project with Tony Iommi is the post in which the author says that it has nothing to do with Tony Iommi other than he's a guitarist like Django Reinhardt? Seems like the opposite of a slam dunk.
It's also 1) a very obvious and cute joke for people who are familiar with both guitarists, and 2) you don't own your last name - although if you put "Iommi" on a guitar (or a studded leather jacket), you're going to have a problem. But if you call your casserole recipe Iommi's Casserole, only a moron in a hurry is going to be confused.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_moron_in_a_hurry
> So that means that the only way that you can absolutely associate the project with Tony Iommi is the post in which the author says that it has nothing to do with Tony Iommi other than he's a guitarist like Django Reinhardt?
No, everything on https://iommi.rocks screams Tony Iommi, who was himself famously inspired by Django Reinhardt, because they both suffered severe finger injuries.
"Your first pick"... guitar pick.
"for a Django power chord"... Tony Iommi was famous for using power chords (in part due to his loss of fingers).
The sample code uses "Album" and "Artist".
Even the "rocks" in the domain name is suggestive.
> Seems like the opposite of a slam dunk.
> It's also 1) a very obvious and cute joke for people who are familiar with both guitarists
These consecutive sentences are strangely contradictory. Not a slam dunk, yet very obvious?
> you don't own your last name - although if you put "Iommi" on a guitar (or a studded leather jacket), you're going to have a problem.
As I said in another comment, this is not a trademark issue. It's good that you admit, though, that there are limits to using a person's name on a product. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45758717
> But if you call your casserole recipe Iommi's Casserole, only a moron in a hurry is going to be confused. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_moron_in_a_hurry
Of course nobody is going to confuse a casserole or a Python package with a guitarist. But that's not the issue. Again, Tony Iommi is a person and not a product. If you market your casserole by giving the impression that Tony Iommi may have invented the recipe for the casserole, or at least knows of and endorses the casserole, that would be problematic.
> "for a Django power chord"
That's also a pun on "batteries included". We don't have batteries included: we supply a power cord.
I never got around to implementing my idea of randomizing "chord"/"cord" on each page load though :P
Maybe I'm confused. Which law would you presume was violated? Did Django violate the same law when it was named Django? Did Python violate that same law?
The ultimate test of this would be to name the next thing Kardashian.
The issue is that Tony Iommi is a live person, so using his name can give the impression that he endorses or is in some way associated with the product. Django Reinhardt died in 1953 and thus cannot endorse a product 50 years later. Monty Python is not a person.
I don't think anyone is under the impression that Tony Iommi is promoting a web framework.
Why not? After all, he's promoting a perfume: https://www.nordstrom.com/s/tony-iommi-monkey-special-parfum...
Having spent a lifetime around hessians, I can't imagine a product I want less.
I honestly doubt he's promoting it after seeing it :P Sounds more like his record company could smell money.
Monty Python was at the time a group of people (seems worse than a single person), and afaik also a trademark (also seems worse).
But yea, maybe Python made a legal gamble that just happened to work out. I am not a lawyer :shrug: