On Mon, Jul 17, 2006 at 11:48:05PM +0200, Henning Makholm wrote: > > Because I suppose that if I made up my own "modified Debian" and I'm > > sticking it to a magazine and label it "Debian Sarge, enhanced", I could > > be sued for that.
> You can always be sued, but if you could _lose_ the suit, it would > mean that there is something seriously, horribly wrong somewhere. It > would mean that Debian is no longer free according to our own > standards. It is an _essential_ part of freedom that you can enhance > the software to your own liking and distributing the result. Requiring > you to hide the fact that your work is based on Debian and think up > some cheesy name to use instead would be counterproductive and > non-free. Your analysis here is fatally flawed. First of all, requiring name changes for modified versions is *explicitly* free: it's codified in DFSG #4, and it's the only way that anyone could ever maintain a trademark in relation to Free Software. Second, there is a huge difference between "hid[ing] the fact that your work is based on Debian" and avoiding confusing use of a trademark. If a use of the Debian name misleads people into thinking that a product is official and endorsed by Debian when it isn't, that's probably a sign that it's trademark infringement. > > You never said how comes that something labeled "Debian" should *not* be > > available as free download, as long as debian.org says Debian GNU/Linux > > is available for free download! > There is no such requirement. The _default_ state of legal matters is > that you can do as you want _unless_ there is something concrete that > says you cannot. In this case there is nothing that says that modified > versions of debian must be "available for free download". > If there WERE anything that said that modified versions of Debian must > be "avavilable for free download", it would mean that something is > seriously, horribly, wrong. It would be a non-free requirement. You mean like the terms of the GPL? -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.debian.org/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
