Re: Red Hat License?

[fluke gibson mw luc edu]

  As far as I know, the biggest issues you should be aware of when 
redistributing the downloadable version of Red Hat GNU/Linux is:

  1) the majority of the CD binaries are covered by the GPL/LGPL, you must 
either provide the source code or provide a written offer that you will 
provide the source code for 3 years

  2) Red Hat and the Shadowman logo are trademarks which should only be 
used under special license from Red hat

So...

  Issue 1 is easily address by providing the FULL download set 
(including the 2 source CDs) 

  Issue 2 can be addressed by calling it something other than Red Hat.  
Make it clear that the CDs are not an offical Red hat product (they just
happen to contain Red hat provided data).  One company went as far to give
their unoffical CDs the name of "Pink Tie."  Red Hat has had to deal with 
potental customers complaining that they expected to get the complette box 
set when they bought "Red hat" off of E-bay so Red hat is now prepaired to 
take steps to protect it's name.

  As a side note, although it isn't required by license, you may also want
to notify your customers that they can still subscribe to the Red Hat
Network to get software updates to the unoffical CDs or the pre-installed
software.


On Thu, 31 Oct 2002, Marcel wrote:

> Hi!
> 
> We deliver PC's with W2000 or RedHat Linux together
> with our technical equipment.
> 
> Question: 
> Can we simpy download the RedHatLinux image from the
> RedHat server, burn the CD's, install it and deliver
> them with the burned CD's (with a self-created label),
> without offending against the RedHat License?
> So we don't need to buy the RedHat packages.
> 
> Thanks for your answer!
> Marcel Fritzenwallner
> 
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