Hello, Gilson Thanks for your message. This is only a first clarification. You should also contact debian-legal list [0] asking for correct info. I watched your videos and I will point about some issues regarding your new distro that you should search for more details to avoid legal troubles. 1- Intelectual property registration (patents), copyright, rebranding. 2- FOSS licences and relicensing. 3- "Selling" FOSS software or "selling services". 4- Proprietary, troubled software, licenses and redistribution.
1.1 You should contact your patents and branding lawyer to ask for legal guidance. This message is only informational to bring some subjects to your attention and not, by any means, legal advice. "IP" is not a legal term. It is a broad "marketing buzz umbrella" mixing/confusing various legal concepts. Software patents are not recognized in Brasil nor most of countries. Brasil law does not recognize patents over methods and algorithms. Copyright is recognized. Branding registration is, too. AFAIK, you _"may"_ rebrand *PURE* FOSS sw [1] [2] contained in *"main" section* of Debian repository, AS FAR YOU RESPECT EACH SW LICENSE (some licenses PROHIBIT rebranding under some circunstances or modifications using the same brand as the one used by Mozilla Firefox). 2.1 Most, but not all, FOSS licenses [3] does NOT allow relicensing. You MUST distribute a given sw under the SAME license. And it may prohibit rebranding, reselling, relicensing, etc. Evaluate case by case. But, for start, the "main" section is a safe place. 3.1 AFAIK, you could not "sell" FOSS sw, as their license explain. You could sell services, convenience, related material. Boxed CD, DVD, manuals, documentation, high speed downloads, compiled binaries, tech support, etc. And the source code should be available to all customers in some way. You could provide the source only to the customers, and under request, even at a "nominal fee" for media, but at least they MUST have the choice to get the source. Evaluate the Canonical and Red Hat examples. Red Hat offers compiled binaries only to their customers. And does not allow others to use their brand (see the CentOS reasoning). They sell boxed cd, dvd, download, tech support. Source code is available. Canonical takes snapshots of some sw at Debian unstable main repository each 6 months, put efforts to clean enough bugs to its purposes, add some proprietary sw and some branded sw at boxed and contracted versions (not at the freely available), and rebrand the distro and sell support services. Study and collect correct up to date details at their respective sites. 4.1 By the videos, you may be using some proprietary sw, or some legaly troubled sw. You may be using some codecs, drivers, advanced window manager, and Skype and VmWare sw. Most proprietary sw does not allow redistribution without a signed agreement. Most proprietary sw does not allow rebranding and, even less, relicensing. Some mathematical concepts and algorithms are patented in some countries (codecs, file formats...) and you could not redistribute freely at whole world even clean room new implementations using such algorithms or file formats. Only to countries not patenting sw methods. It "seems" that you use the beautiful but unfortunate Advanced Window Manager, that seemed like the Mac interface. Apple pursuited its patents and such sw was removed from most distro repositories. Good luck. Andre Felipe Machado [0] http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/ [1] http://www.debian.org/intro/free [2] http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines [3] http://www.opensource.org/licenses
