ArsTechnical is reporting that CMP Media, in conjunction with Tim O'Reilly who is credited with coining the phrase, have served the organizer of an event for using the term as the title of their event. While bloggers are in an uproar over the apparent "lock down", many fail to realize that CMP is actually trying to protect the name of the event, "Web 2.0 Conference", and not the general use of the term. IT@Cork, the recipient of the letter, is trying to use the conference name for their own event, which is not only confusing but in ill taste.

Think what you may of the term Web 2.0, but it has become somewhat synonymous with the technological evangelism of O'Reilly and his friends. Scheduling an event and calling it by the same name is the equivalent of the European arena football league organizing a championship event and calling it the "Super Bowl". At some point even the most benign must stop others from blatantly ripping off their ideas and repackaging them to make a quick buck.

While I respect the opinion of many bloggers I feel that in general the blogsphere tends to overreact, much like folks in the real world, and go off "half cocked" when they read one disparaging story. At some point people need to take a step back, evaluate all the evidence before making a judgment call. And please, for the sanity of us all, RTFA (Read The Freakin' Article).