On Tue, 2007-06-05 at 10:55 +0200, Stefan Held wrote: > Am Dienstag, den 05.06.2007, 10:47 +0200 schrieb Nicolas Mailhot: > > Le Mar 5 juin 2007 10:32, Stefan Held a écrit : > > > Red Hat Marketing and Legal wants no risk of confusion between RHEL > > and Fedora > > This is why i said we maybe have to discuss this again. Sorry, why is that a reason to discuss this again? > Trust me, i have recent and respectfull sources who said they think like > i do. I guess I'm a bit confused about the "not wearing a red fedora" rule for Ambassadors. That is something that is hard to make a rule. For example, I attend Bay Area Linux events as an Ambassador and as a Red Hat associate. If I wear my red fedora at the Fedora booth at LWCE, I dare anyone to tell me I cannot wear it. But I probably _won't_ wear it, because it confuses people. I'm not there as a representative of Red Hat, but as a Fedora community member. For me, this is a VERY BIG DIFFERENCE, and I think the same is true for all people who work for Red Hat and are a part of Fedora.[1] The core of all this is the way trademark laws work. Red Hat has the "Shadowman" logo trademarked, which is a human face in the shadow of a fedora he is wearing. It is obvious that, if Fedora were to use a hat in any form as part of its logo, it would confuse people as to what was Red Hat and what Fedora. Ironically, because of trademark laws, Red Hat would likely have to enforcing its trademark against Fedora. *ick* This is because, to keep a trademark current, one has to defend it against _all_ abuses, intentional or not. Now, an Ambassador wearing a red fedora at a Fedora booth doesn't seem much like "trademark infringement." But it could be confusing to people. So, maybe instead of it being a confusing rule, it could be a guideline -- "Ambassadors, please don't wear a red fedora or Red Hat gear at Fedora events, it confuses people." Is that good enough? - Karsten [1] To expand on that a bit ... Red Hat (RHT) is a public company with very strict rules (in the US in particular) about what can and cannot be discussed publicly. Fedora is the opposite of that -- there is almost nothing that cannot or should not be discussed in public. So, if I were at a Fedora booth, wearing all Red Hat gear, and talking about what is coming on the Fedora technology roadmap, I'm sure that is going to create confusion for someone. What if a financial analyst comes by, decides I'm giving insider information, and acts upon it? A series of coincidences could lead to me being arrested for violating insider trading laws, as well as out on the street without a job. IANAL, but as a layperson who has been trained on what I can and cannot do under US Federal laws, I have a pretty clear idea of what is risky behavior. So, I wear 100% Fedora gear at Fedora booths, and when people ask if I work for Red Hat, I say, "Yes, but that has nothing to do with why I'm here," etc. In fact, until _very_recently_, my Red Hat job was unrelated to my volunteer Fedora work. But because of my position in the company and the project, it would be easy to get confused about when I was speaking for one or the other group. Wearing one set of "colors" helps take care of that. -- Karsten Wade, 108 Editor ^ Fedora Documentation Project Sr. Developer Relations Mgr. | fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject quaid.108.redhat.com | gpg key: AD0E0C41 ////////////////////////////////// \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
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