Dag,
I think you are taking what RedHat Legal says too
literally. Yes, they SAY this is about confusion, but
I do not think it is really about confusion. This is
about their trademark rights (not covered by the GPL)
and what they can do to enhance their revenue flow --
make it harder for the public to know more about the
advantages of CentOS.
> It's hard to discuss this without knowing what
happened exactly after
> the
> letter was received, but I would have send out a
reply asking for
> concrete examples and rationale.
So I think asking for concrete examples and rationale
are not likely to help, as asking for this will not
cause RedHat to back down from enfocing their
trademark rights -- because of the "real reasons".
Rick
> Message: 5
> Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2005 21:12:19 +0100 (CET)
> From: Dag Wieers <dag@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Centos] Red Hat Legal Targets
www.centos.org website
> content
> To: CentOS discussion and information list
<centos@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID:
<Pine.LNX.4.61.0502142101290.921@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
>
>
> I think the issue here might be the fact that Red
Hat is mentioned
> together with links to the Red Hat site in such a
way people might be
> misled into thinking CentOS is endorsed by Red Hat
or CentOS is the
> same
> as RHEL.
>
> Now, it would not surprise me if that message got
lost in translation
> and
> ended up being written as it is in legalese.
>
> It's hard to discuss this without knowing what
happened exactly after
> the
> letter was received, but I would have send out a
reply asking for
> concrete
> examples and rationale. It makes common sense that
if you receive a
> message that (partly) does not make sense to you,
you ask for
> clarification.
>
> It's in everybody's best interest to get rid of any
confusion the
> website
> might give. We do not want people to believe that
CentOS is something
> else.
>
> Let's not focus on one mistake and let everybody do
their job and clear
> out the mess. I don't think there were ill
intentions being used here,
> except maybe the guy who posted this on Slashdot.
>
> -- dag wieers, dag@xxxxxxxxxx,
http://dag.wieers.com/ --
> [all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and
unlimited power]
>
