Re: Share Scratch, but restrict the use of trademarks
Dear Amos,
Le 29/09/11 22:19, Amos Blanton a écrit :
>
> I'm working on getting the rest of the Scratch Team to sign off on
> releasing Scratch 1.4 under the GPL v3. One roadblock that remains is
> that we feel it's important to prevent others from re-releasing modified
> versions of Scratch with our trademarks. We *do not* want to prevent
> maintainers or helpful contributors from fixing bugs or addressing
> security issues in the official Scratch package. 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 has been done many times already
> <http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/List_of_Scratch_Modifications> under
> our current custom license).
IANAL, but I far as I understand, software license and trademark license
really are two distinct matters. You can GPL your software even if you
require any derived work to be rebranded. That would, however, force
Debian to rebrand Scratch right-away, which you probably don't want to
happen. It's also very important that you don't make exceptions for
Debian or whatever vendor: if you allow "us" to do something with your
software, you should allow our downstream as well.
For a sane workflow in Debian, we need to be allowed modifications such as:
- bug fixes (including security);
- moving files around for better integration;
- adding documentation;
- dynamic linking of libraries;
- removing files or features which are not free according to the
Debian Free Software Guidelines or which are covered by enforced patents;
- rarely, early integration of features which we hope will be accepted
upstream.
I think you should first clarify which modifications you are willing to
allow under the name "Scratch", and which modifications would require
re-branding. You can certainly then just put a file (README.trademark,
LICENSE.trademark?) in the source distribution which explains exactly
that. The exact content of this file can be discussed, so that in the
end you grant us and the rest of the world sufficient rights to work
with your package in a legal and sane manner, but not too much so as to,
in effect, loose the benefit of you trademark.
Best regards, Thibaut.
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