Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 16:36:37 -0400 (EDT) From: "Matthew N. Dodd" <winter@jurai.net> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: Jonathan Lemon <jlemon@americantv.com>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG, jkh@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Use of the name "FreeBSD" (Was: Market share and platform support) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9909101626210.14497-100000@sasami.jurai.net> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.58.19990910120630.0479db30@localhost>
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On Fri, 10 Sep 1999, Brett Glass wrote: > Right now, the FreeBSD.org Web site already favors Walnut Creek in that > it does not mention Cheap Bytes as a source of CD-ROMs (see > > http://www.freeBSD.org/FAQ/preface.html#AEN26). This is troubling to > anyone who might consider doing another distribution. If I had to guess I'd say that Cheap Bytes doesn't solicit the official dist from the release engineers or otherwise attempt to put itself in the loop, and they probably don't give all their profits to The FreeBSD Project like WC does (did? I don't know.) Why would the Project favor a CD that doesn't have any other benefit than being 'cheap'? > > >From what it sounds like, you want to make a complete departure from the > >methods and manner of 'The FreeBSD Project' and produce something based on > >the 'FreeBSD Software'. > > Not so. The policy of the project, in keeping with the philosophy of the BSD > license, should be to allow people to do what they will with the project's > intellectual property without having to ask explicit permission. The conditions > imposed on such use are minor: indemnification against liability for bugs > and not claiming it as one's own work. To quote from the FAQ: > > "The goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that may be used for > any purpose and without strings attached." > > To insist that it not be called FreeBSD at all if it's published by someone > other than one or more select publishers -- especially if the content is > the same -- > is certainly to attach some big strings and also to favor some over others. Stop thinking of WC as the publisher then. Consider WC to be the distribution arm of The FreeBSD Project. That is more or less what the situation looks like to my untrained eye. JKH can correct me if I'm too far out in left field. > >I asked my roommate who is a Debian ('Linux') developer and he said that > >Debian is pretty much the same with regard to the use of the 'Debian' > >brand. > > You're confusing the issue. Anyone can do a distribution of Linux and > call it, for example, "BlobWare Linux." Creators of other distributions can > use the name "Linux," but not the name "BlobWare." This is Linus' policy > regarding the use of the trademark "Linux," which he owns. No, I'm not. Anyone can take the Debian Software and create a CD but they can only sell it as 'Debian' if they actually press the official Debian CD image. Thats what you were bitching and moaning about a few paragraphs up. > >Why you expect the 'FreeBSD Project' to allow you to do something against > >the Project's best interests is beyond me. > > The development of good distributions is, as I've mentioned before, in the > project's best interests. It has done much good for Linux. Its not clear that anything you would have a hand it would be considered a 'good distribution'. Thus my confusion. You've efficively positioned yourself as a 'hostile' distributor of FreeBSD software. If you're not for the Project then you're working against it. You've created this preception, not I. > >Correct, but there is a difference b/t using the name 'FreeBSD' and > >pretending to be 'The FreeBSD'. > > A requirement that the vendor prepend its name, as mentioned above, would > solve this problem. And in the case of the WC FreeBSD CDROM it appears to me that the vendor is The FreeBSD Project, not WC. -- | Matthew N. Dodd | '78 Datsun 280Z | '75 Volvo 164E | FreeBSD/NetBSD | | winter@jurai.net | 2 x '84 Volvo 245DL | ix86,sparc,pmax | | http://www.jurai.net/~winter | This Space For Rent | ISO8802.5 4ever | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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