On Sun, 03 Aug 2003 22:49:10 +0300
Gilad Ben-Yossef <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Now, the big 9,000,000$ question is:
>
> Does this violate the principles of Free Software (note that I didn't
> say anything about the GPL license - IANAL, I'm asking if you think it
> hurts violates the philosophy of Free Software):
As a (name-ommited-due-to-trademarks) user myself I am watching this
closely. The basic guideline in my view is similar to software:
- Let's assume someone gives you a binary-only software with permission
to copy/distribute/modify etc. Is it free/OSS software? No! Why?
Because without source the software cannot be *practically*
modified/adapted/maintained etc. (Although someone may claim you
can use your rights by disassembling, binary patching etc, we
[free/oss comunity] don't accept this as real freedom).
- Same IMO should go with the trademark issue:
- If all logos/names are maintained orthogonaly to the software
base (e.g: separate themese, patch sets etc.) than I think the
software is free. We may need either to remove a trademark
package (very easy) or recompile a *predetermined* set of
packages (possibly the whole distro) -- this can still done
in a deterministic/automatic way to produce a non-tradmark
violating distribution.
- If OTOH tradmarks are gradually merged more deeply into the
source than removing them may be not only difficult, but
non-deterministic (imagine logoes encoded in C as internal
xpm/xbm structs, or the holy name appearing in various public
keys [e.g: for HTTPS, SMTP/TLS]). In this case, separating the
trademarks from the distro may be never-ending task with the risk
that after the effort, you'll be left with some obscure, forgoten
logo/name in one application -- i.e: liable!!!
I think the only way for RedHat Inc. to assure us, is some kind of
"contract" -- Just like they promised in their announcement that
source/binaries/isos will be *always* available for RedHat-Linux-Project,
they should have some similar promise (which we will have to verify) that
all the trademarks in the project will be packaged and listed in a way that
would enable to remove them. The removal does not have to be quick (I think
that even a requirement for full recompile is reasonable) but it MUST be
deterministic so in the end of the process we have a free distro --
Otherwise, they are just like SUSE -- a non-free OS based on a free one.
I want to be assured that if one day RedHat change their name to
Santa-RedHat-Operations, I won't have to worry:-)
An (anonymous-distro) user on guard...
--
Oron Peled Voice/Fax: +972-4-8228492
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.actcom.co.il/~oron
"Linux: like the air you breathe, ubiquitous and free"
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