[ILUG-Social] article on newsforge

[Rick Moen]

Hmm, I just finally caught up on the Newsforge story.  Looks like 
Red Hat Software is using trademark protection as a bit of a bludgeon.
That is, they're going beyond merely barring people from selling 
products bearing the trademarked name "Red Hat", or act so as to
create confusion about brand identity.  Their trademark monopoly 
entitles them to that.  Rather:

    ...you may not name or brand your product "Red Hat," or use the Red
    Hat trademarks in any way, either on your product or in related 
    advertising.

(http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark/page9.html)

So, they're claiming that other vendors may not mention "Red Hat" 
at all.  Sorry, guys, but trademark protection doesn't extend quite that
far.

Their trademark monopoly doesn't prevent me from selling "Rick's
Linux Distribution that's Way Better than Red Hat's".  It doesn't 
prevent me from selling "Rick's mirror of
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/redhat-7.2-en/iso/i386/", either.

But, again, GPL and other copyright-based objections aren't relevant to
this matter.

-- 
"Is it not the beauty of an asynchronous form of discussion that one can go and 
make cups of tea, floss the cat, fluff the geraniums, open the kitchen window 
and scream out it with operatic force, volume, and decorum, and then return to 
the vexed glowing letters calmer of mind and soul?" -- The Cube, forum3000.org