Re: Are Debian logos still non-free?
Lewis Jardine <debian@catbox.co.uk> wrote:
> Would I be correct in saying that as long as copyright is not infringed,
> it is fine to distribute art that is used as a trademark, as long as
> you do not use it as a trademark. As a concrete example, if I were to
> distribute 'foo Linux', that contained a package "debian-open-use-logo :
> 'this is the Debian open-use logo; it is a trademark of debian'", this
> would be fine as long as I did not use the logo to brand my distribution?
I think your general point is correct, but the concrete example is
not fine at the moment, according to http://www.uk.debian.org/logos/
and the copyright statement shown there. This is a bug.
> Also, is it not permissible to do something like 'This distribution is
> derived from @Debian', much like the way many webservers have 'powered
> by Apache'? Is it not only when you start misrepresenting ('passing
> off') your software /as/ Debian that trademarks become an issue?
That is my understanding of trademarks and that is another
illustration of why stupid mixing up of copyright and trademarks
is really a pain for promoting free software in a friendly
way. Why do we want to have trademarks that hurt our friends?
If www.debian.org.uk wants to sell debian, then fine - I only
dislike them because they're now selling SuSE and "Linux"
consultancy without making it clear they're not debian (at
http://www.debian.org.uk/b2b/linux-support/ )
--
MJR/slef
http://people.debian.org/~mjr/
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