Re: Educational Community License 1.0
Amos Blanton <amos@scratch.mit.edu> writes:
> Thanks for this information. I ran into Mako Hill yesterday and we now have
> a new plan of action:
I'm glad you are having these discussions.
> - Separate trademark license to allow Debian and other distros to
> distribute the package with our trademarks (the cat, the name Scratch,
> the Logo) under certain conditions.
Bear in mind that the Debian Free Software Guidelines don't allow a work
into Debian if the license is special to Debian. See DFSG §8:
8. License Must Not Be Specific to Debian
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's
being part of a Debian system. If the program is extracted from
Debian and used or distributed without Debian but otherwise within
the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program
is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are
granted in conjunction with the Debian system.
This effectively means that the trademark license must be universal and
open to all recipients, regardless of Debian, otherwise it's not a free
work under the Debian guidelines.
> I'm told others have used a separate trademark license, so I'm looking
> for guidelines / examples to model ours on. Any recommendations? Are
> there standard trademark / distribution licenses we could use?
That's a tricky one; I don't know of any good examples to point you at.
It's also potentially interesting to note that the Debian project
recognises the opposing forces that trademark holders are trying to
resolve, and the project is currently discussing to come up with the
kind of guidelines you are asking for.
> We just don't want people distributing modified versions of Scratch as
> Scratch, or otherwise using the logo / Scratch Cat, which might create
> confusion.
Another data point: no such restriction applies to the Linux penguin
(“Tux”), and endless variations of Tux have been made and distributed.
Do you think that, if the same were to happen with Scratch, the
resulting confusion is unacceptable?
--
\ “Are you pondering what I'm pondering?” “Umm, I think so, Don |
`\ Cerebro, but, umm, why would Sophia Loren do a musical?” |
_o__) —_Pinky and The Brain_ |
Ben Finney
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