Scripsit "Conny Brunnkvist" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [Conny wants to create an enhanced distribution based on Debian]
> So my questions are, is it legal to do this? I cannot see anything in what you describe that has any reason not to be allowed. At least as long as you stick to `main', all the individual packages are of course free. As for what "compilation copyright" the Debian project may have on the entire collection of packages - and this probably varies greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction - there seems to be no official license statement anywhere on the web site, but it is clearly implied by the Social Contract that it is made available under terms that at least fulfil the DFSG. Thus, you're legally entitled to fork the whole OS - grab the contents of ftp.debian.org and start your own competing general-purpose GNU/whatever distribution, as long as you give proper credit to the earlier contributors. You can also do something less hostile, like creating a specialized distribution targeted for some specific target group, such as you describe. In fact, the project usually encourages such endeavors. See question 13.3 in <http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/>. > Is it ok for me to call my version "MySpecial Debian GNU/Linux" Debian is a registered trademark, but the trademark rights are managed with a healthy amount of common sense. As long as the name clearly implies that this is not the real, original, thing, there should be no problems here. After all we ourselves use the "Linux" trademarks in the name of Debian GNU/Linux. Beware, however, from <http://www.debian.org/News/1998/19980306a>: | To be fair to all businesses, we insist that no business use the | name "Debian" in the name of the business, or a domain name of the | business. > Or is it fine if I just pay the respect to the main-branch and write > something like "Powered by Debian" in the subtitle? That would unambigously OK. > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] I somehow seem to have received this on debian-legal though the list is not in the To or Cc lines. Does "<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>" forward to debian-legal, or was it just Bcc'ed to -legal? -- Henning Makholm "Take a sad song, and make it bitter."
