[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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