hi everyone,
i appreciate daniel's approach to make this an open discussion, so i thought i'd write something about my opinion.
i'm not involved in developing arduino though.
i totally agree with mellis, about a core team that keeps an eye on the development. yes its free and its open, but not everything free and open is automatically great. arduino is one project and deserves a unique name which identifies it as such. i think of the core developer group as luxury which many open source projects lack.
if it's fine to write "based on arduino", or "arduino inside"(if there's one original inside), i think that's alright. if you make something for arduino, i see the necessity to clear up on the copyright involved. wouldn't one be allowed to write "made for arduino" as in "made for iPhone"?
another important aspect is production. it's a good thing that someone (we can point our fingers on) is in charge of these decisions. since the code and files are essentially available the name "arduino" is the only thing that's left to keep control over production. of course "made in italy" doesn't make sense in all parts of the world. but that's another problem.
and finally i see no problem in cooperation with chip manufacturers, resalers or whatsoever by members of the group, or the team as a whole. this is not the state i'm living in, it's an open source project by some people. and luckily it let's me realize my own projects on very basic level that i'm not afraid to become dependant on a brand and its development.
help is free and work is not. 
the rest again is production, and that of course involves money.
so long,
kuk