Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on May 28, 2007 12:07 AM
The GPL doesn't cover trademark issues. It is a copyright license. It also covers some patent issues, but only through it's conditional grant of a license under copyright.
This is why Red Hat can require that a repackager like CentOS remove all Red Hat logos and references from the CentOS distribution (CentOS is a recompile of Red Hat, with a few changes and without the expensive support contract that Red Hat requires its users purchase).
It's also why Firefox--which is distributed under both the MPL and the GPL--can require Debian to submit their patches for upstream approval if Debian wants to call the program "Firefox." Debian's policies don't allow for distributing a program with such restrictions. So they simply call it "Iceweasel" and change the logo.
The issue here is not that you can't trademark a program that you've published under the GPL. It's that handhelds.org is not the owner of the project. They have provided web hosting for the project and are now trying to claim that it is their own. Just because you host something on your webserver does not make it yours.
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Posted by: Anonymous Coward on May 28, 2007 12:07 AMThis is why Red Hat can require that a repackager like CentOS remove all Red Hat logos and references from the CentOS distribution (CentOS is a recompile of Red Hat, with a few changes and without the expensive support contract that Red Hat requires its users purchase).
It's also why Firefox--which is distributed under both the MPL and the GPL--can require Debian to submit their patches for upstream approval if Debian wants to call the program "Firefox." Debian's policies don't allow for distributing a program with such restrictions. So they simply call it "Iceweasel" and change the logo.
The issue here is not that you can't trademark a program that you've published under the GPL. It's that handhelds.org is not the owner of the project. They have provided web hosting for the project and are now trying to claim that it is their own. Just because you host something on your webserver does not make it yours.
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