lucky13
Group: Members
Posts: 1478
Joined: Feb. 2007 |
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Posted: Jan. 21 2008,16:42 |
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| Quote | | Better yet, remember the wisdom of the Grateful Dead and let them copy. |
Grateful Dead didn't release their work under GPLv2. DSL has. The BSD license doesn't have the same requirements/restrictions of GPL. I don't know what these guys are doing with anything from DSL -- if anything -- but they have some strict obligations if they're using any of the GPL code from the DSL project.
The Grateful Dead also may have had a lax policy with respect to recording concerts, but they don't let other people use their trademarked name in the distribution of it (i.e., if you compile a series of their live recordings to sell, you can't call your distribution company "Gateful Dead Recordings" or anything that infringes on their trademark unless they grant you license to do that). (Edit:) You also can't put together a cover band and use the name "Grateful Dead" in it. You're not the Grateful Dead and their trademark forbids anyone else from using that name without permission. That goes for ANY trademark.
I can't speak for John, who has a registered trademark for Damn Small Linux, but I'd protect that trademark diligently if it were mine -- a little due diligence goes a long way to keep more people from walking all over the trademark. That's not about freedom or competition, that's about what's legal. Those guys could've just as easily picked a name that doesn't infringe on anyone else's trademark. As it is now, they not only are robbing the name but making an identically-conceived product. (The other person's comment about "Coca Sprite" is beside the point because both products are Unix-based, 50MB, similar X environments, etc. -- cola to cola, apples to apples.)
As for "competition," that project doesn't present any. From looking at their documentation, it's still at a "proof of concept" stage.
(edited)
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"It felt kind of like having a pitbull terrier on my rear end."
-- meo (copyright(c)2008, all rights reserved)
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