Re: Share Scratch, but restrict the use of trademarks
Amos Blanton <amos@scratch.mit.edu> writes:
> I'm working on getting the rest of the Scratch Team to sign off on
> releasing Scratch 1.4 under the GPL v3.
Thank you for this work.
> One roadblock that remains is that we feel it's important to prevent
> others from re-releasing modified versions of Scratch with our
> trademarks.
Why so broad? That's exactly the position that led to Debian having no
option but to re-brand Firefox as Iceweasel.
The trouble is that “modification” covers any change at all, including
exactly the actions you go on to endorse:
> We *do not* want to prevent maintainers or helpful contributors from
> fixing bugs or addressing security issues in the official Scratch
> package.
If these are actions you want to permit, then you *do* want to permit
others to release modified versions of Scratch with the Scratch
trademarks.
That's commendable, but it's incompatible with your initially-expressed
desire to prevent modified works carrying the Scratch trademarks. One of
those desires needs to give some ground.
> And we're happy to see Scratch remixed as long as the remix isn't
> called Scratch, and doesn't use our logo or the Scratch Cat
This restriction is less problematic, since it gets to the core of the
socially-beneficial aspect of trademarks. It's not obviously free, and
needs careful wording, but it's not obviously non-free either.
> Are there good legal strategies for providing these protections that
> you'd recommend we look into? We'd very much like Scratch to be
> included in Debian's repositories, as well as other distros.
It's a topic fraught with problems, because of the closely-conflicting
forces: software freedom versus the recipients's need to know what
they're getting.
Here is one debian-legal's considered input on the matter
<URL:http://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20070412004631.GA4014@doctormoo.dyndns.org>,
containing a model trademark license which IMO does not unduly restrict
the freedom of the work.
Thank you again for working to keep Scratch free software while
maintaining its integrity.
--
\ “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, |
`\ neat, and wrong.” —Henry L. Mencken |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
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