Basically, a bunch of startups are "open source" in name only. That is, they are labeling themselves as open source without paying the piper.
To those startups I say: you don't get to do that. You don't have to publish your hardware designs on the net, but if you don't, you don't get to call yourself open source hardware.
The free software/hardware/culture people must [speak out against companies] who use the brand inappropriately. Failure to do so means dilution of the brand.
I hope you mean something more like "call out" or "identify" or something. Defame has strong connotations of doing something unfair or unethical (in U.S. law, defamation usually starts when someone makes a false statement...).
Basically, a bunch of startups are "open source" in name only. That is, they are labeling themselves as open source without paying the piper.
To those startups I say: you don't get to do that. You don't have to publish your hardware designs on the net, but if you don't, you don't get to call yourself open source hardware.
The free software/hardware/culture people must [speak out against companies] who use the brand inappropriately. Failure to do so means dilution of the brand.
[edit: defame is not the word I was looking for.]