[ale] Re: Red Hat scare tactics

[Bob Toxen]

On Tue, Oct 14, 2003 at 03:19:31PM -0400, Michael D. Hirsch wrote:
> On Thursday 09 October 2003 08:45 pm, Fulton Green wrote:
> > Not that I'd ever talk about anything besides Red Hat on this list ...

> > On Thu, Oct 09, 2003 at 06:03:29PM -0400, Michael D. Hirsch wrote:
> > > On a related topic, has anyone looked at the forthcoming licensing from
> > > RedHat?  They will no longer have freely downloadable ISOs.  The cheapest
> > > desktop distribution from them will be $179 per system.  Which comes with
> > > RHN updates, no support, no CD, no hardcopy manual.
...
$179/sys or $179 total for all of an organization's systems still is
cheaper than $199/sys for XP.

> > > I keep wondering what prevents someone from getting one license, then
> > > capturing the RPMs from the update network and redistibuting them to
> > > multiple systems.  RH seems to be trying to convince you that this is a
> > > no-no, but I don't think they have a leg to stand on.
I haven't looked at the recent licenses but the RH7.3 license points out
that the Distribution has trademarked Red Hat logos embedded.  It is these
logos that it is illegal to copy except under the terms of the license.

I was hired by a company to strip these logos from a Red Hat distribution
so that they could sell prebuilt systems to others without a royalty
arrangement with Red Hat.  Red Hat considered this on the "up and up".

I think, though, that Red Hat is right on the edge of the law w.r.t.
the GPL that states that if you provide GPL'ed code to one other entity
that you have to make it available to anyone for no more than a nominal
fee.  I think that a fee of $20-50 for a CD or providing the GPL code
for download in some reasonable form is needed to satisfy that requirement.

Red Hat saying that they offer it only as an ISO image but that you cannot
burn CDs for others "due to trademarked logos on the image" may not be
legal, in my non-legal opinion.

...
> Thanks,

> Michael

Bob Toxen
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