M.S.Yatnatti CEO KPN UNLIMITD wrote: > Dear Mr Atanu, > I am thankful for your cool reply.Please provide me the link where GPL > provides branding of GPLed software's.. > At the same time please provide me what happens to four freedoms guaranteed > in GPL at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html.Out > of four one about redistribution is snatched by putting restriction on > redistribution� by branding.� Is� GPL has two different policies one > about four freedoms and other with branding. Please be cool and > reply.Many have lossed cool why replying to� me.Let us understand the > GPL indepth whether some one call me fool or troll.I am not bothered > about their accusation .I make the� debate without fearing any > body.they can express their views I can express my views .Ultimately FOSS > is big community to take care of GPL.. Learning is not > simple.Immediately many people jumped on me calling troll instead of subject, > Is it > illegal to redistribute RHEL? the question you have raised at Linux For You.. > I dont know� tommorrow they may say you have raised this isuue for cheap > publicity for your magzine. I know you have made a great debate� > public..Thanks for your daring article.� . > M.S.Yatnatti > > KPN UNLIMITED Corporate Office:No.18/6, Executive chambers, Cunningham Road, > Bangalore � 560052. WEBSITE WWW.KPNUNLIMITED.OR As I couldn't any more see my friends' futile attempts to make you understand what GPL is for and what it's aims are, I try to add some support for them too. Before that, can you please learn how to write mails, especially when you are replying to other's replies and how to quote other's words when replying to them. All your mails have been unnecessarily long, not because your reply was long but because you chose to leave the earlier mail (if not wrong, the entire multi-quoted thread) at the end of your reply. Secondly, your sentence structure is so terrible that we have to read it many times to understand what you mean, and in the process might have completely misunderstood what you mean. I also wonder why do you want to advertise your company in all your mails to a public mailing list unless you are expressing not your personal opinions and concerns but rather of your company's.
Coming to the point, you have repeatedly talked about the 4 freedoms offered by GPL.but this raises the question whether you have understood the 4 freedoms and where they can be applied. As RHEL you are referring to seems to exist under GPLV2, reading [1] again might be of use to you. If you read it, point 0 clearly states that it covers the program or other work which contains a notice that they are under GPL v2 and you can exclude something from being included if it doesn't affect the execution of the program that is under GPL. And, GPL covers only the copying, distribution and modification of the above mentioned program and anything other than this is out of its scope. Considering RHEL, you are free to do anything with the program and the code which is under GPL v2. This means, you can share the code, you can modify the code and you can distribute the modified code. The 'program under GPL' doesn't cover the name RHEL or the logos and other branding of RHEL at all, which means although you're allowed to distribute and modify the RHEL source code which is under GPL, you can not distribute the branding RHEL until you are authorized to do so. In addition, reading about this [2] GPL violation case in which MySQL AB won the case will also let you know the different between GPL and trademark license. Another pointer on a FOSS product's trademark policies on licensing (read Drupal and Mozilla) [3] and [4], though they aren't completely relevant on a GPL case but it shows how they value trademarks even when keeping their product open sourced. If you have any dispute with this, i.e. not allowing the branding to be distributed while you can do so with the source code under GPL associated with it, it would be better to consider a legal authority/help. You can even write to RMS or to Red Hat's legal department, but please ensure that your mail is sensible enough and structured that those sane men can get the meaning out of it. As we have tried our best to enlighten you about the fact and the truth, there is nothing more we can offer you in this matter. May be someone in this list can refer you to a proper legal help on this. [1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html [2] http://www.open-mag.com/features/Vol_24/GPL/gpl.htm [3] http://groups.drupal.org/node/15023 [4] http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/licensing.html -- --- With Regards, Parthan "technofreak" <gpg> 2FF01026 <blog> http://blog.technofreak.in _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
