Re: Linux mark extortion
On 6/17/05, Bruce Perens <bruce@perens.com> wrote:
> The userlinux project has been approached by the Linux Mark Institute
> with a demand for money in order to make use of the "Linux" trademark.
> Said demand would also apply to the Debian project. I believe their
> terms to be non-DFSG-compliant. See http://www.linuxmark.org/ . Debian
> has made historicial use of the mark GNU/Linux and has a right to
> continue to do so.
Reading the LMI site, they're only requiring a license on
uses of Linux which are not labelling OS software. License
requirements which have nothing to do with software aren't
really within the scope of the DFSG.
Perhaps they also require some derivative works to not be named
Linux, but DFSG #4 seems to allow that.
I don't know enough about the userlinux project to know why they
should be required to pay money -- perhaps it's because the
project name includes "linux", or perhaps it's because they
claim to offer professional Linux certification, or perhaps there
are other additional reasons. But I can't think of anything
within Debian which would require us, or our users, to pay money.
Could you explain in more detail why this you expect them to
cause problems for Debian, or the free software community?
Thanks,
--
Raul
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