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Re: Debian Pure Project



Hi Robert,

On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 06:55:12AM -0700, Robert Tolu wrote:

> My name is Robert Tolu and I currently lead a project
> known as Debian Pure (www.debianpure.com).  I am
> writing because it has come to my attention that the
> Debian name is a trademark and I may be infringing on
> this trademark.  Let me tell you about Debian Pure. 
> Basically, it?s the official Sarge installer slightly
> modified to install sets of packages and preseeds to
> get a Debian desktop running.  The packages that are
> included all come from the official Sarge repositories
> with the exceptions of the common plugins (Java,
> Flash, w32codecs, libdvdcss2, mplayer).

> I want to apologize in advance if I have indeed
> infringed on the Debian trademark and will change the
> name of Debian Pure immediately if you so desire.

Thank you for coming to us about this.  While your project sounds
interesting, you are right that there is a trademark problem when using this
name for a project that isn't sanctioned by Debian officially.  Like others
on the list have done, I would encourage you to get involved in the
debian-installer project (debian-boot@lists.debian.org) to help the etch
installer live up to your expectations, and I would insist that you change
your domain name and project name to eliminate any confusion about its
relationship to Debian.

> I?ve noticed other modified installers that are considered Debian. 

I'm not aware of any such modified installers that are referred to as
"Debian <foo>", which is something of an important distinction.  I've seen
"yada yada installer *for* Debian", which is in quite a different category
trademark-wise.

Incidentally, in looking around your website, I don't see either links for
source code, or a written offer to provide source code upon request; you may
want to ensure that you're in compliance with the GPL as well when
distributing these images :-)

Cheers,
-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/

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