On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 20:28:59 +0300
Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Mon, 2003-09-01 at 20:08, robin wrote:
Inhabitant of Zion wrote:
... please somebody explain to what's that part about Linus
Torvalds ... I thought he was the founder of Linux ... and
suporter of free software .. stuff lik that ...
I can't be sure but as others have expressed it may be something to
do with the name (i.e GNU/Linux vs Linux). If you look at some
stuff in Linux it gives Linux as the registered trademark of Linus
Torwhateveritishecallshimself. Maybe there is some conditions in
his registering of the trademark that prevents anybody from taking
the Linux kernel,tweaking it, and calling the resulting OS GNUx.
I'm pretty sure that is the case, just as, shortly after the
publication of Gibson's Neuroancer (which coined the term
cyberspace) someone with foresight trademarked cyberspace,
specifically so that no other company could do so (and therefore sue
anyone who didn't write it as cyberspace (TM)). Linus' aim was
largely to prevent the product being hijacked by big companies with
big lawyers, though it's possible that he also wanted to retain some
influence over what, after all, was his brainchild.
Sir Robin
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=0220
makes interesting reading.
Letter to linux Journal querying why IDG books had a trademark symbol
(November, 1966)
Paul M.
And here, the result of litigation about the linux trademark.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=2559
--
Michael
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