[Fsf-friends] Indian Express
Mahesh T. Pai
paivakil@vsnl.net
Thu Dec 25 22:18:07 IST 2003
Anil said on Wed, Dec 24, 2003 at 09:45:45PM +0530,:
> Here there is no case of trademark infringement. The CDs which are labelled
> with redhat logo contains only redhat distributed packages.
The first sentence contradicts the second.
The trouble comes from the Red Hat *logo*; not software.
The redistributor has the obligation to remove the logos from the
packages if the sources and logos are interwined. (that is why they
make the sources available).
Hope you are not involved with creation of the CD. This statement can
be used by RH as proof of violation.
> All the stuffs developed by CDIT is distributed in a CD with
> Akshaya logo. It does not contains any reference of redhat.
>
> Whatever CDIT has attempted is legally justified.
Apparently, there are two CDs. One containing RPM binaries + sources
of packages created by C-DIT for the Akshya project. The quote above
apparently refers to this CD.
The other contains a customised version of RH. The first quote
apparently refers to this CD. Hope I got it right. Then I take it that
the letter from RH refers to the CD containing the OS.
May be, you distribute the ISO as it is from RH site; but, as pointed
elsewhere, the RH trade mark policy does not permit that wholesale.
Maybe, C-DIT/Akshya is not charging anything for the CDs
themselves. But whether one is doing a `commercial activity' is
decided by the Courts by looking into other factors too.
But more than the Courts, we need to look into the ethical issues
involved. RH does not like their logos to be used; the logos are not
under a free license. Do not distribute them. Period. End of
distribution.
The costs to be paid to the free software developer community by going
ahead with such distribution will be high. The entire geographical
region will have to bear that. Can we afford it??
--
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M.,
'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road,
Ernakulam, Cochin-682018,
Kerala, India.
http://in.geocities.com/paivakil
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
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