Novell/progeny to take up redhat legacy services

[Eric Rostetter]

Quoting William Hooper <whooperhsd3 at earthlink.net>:

> Sigh, must we go through this again?

Yes, unfortunately so.  But, this is my last post on the subject.

> You can do anything you want to and with the code that complies with the
> GPL.  Stop.

Not if it violates trademarks as may be the case with RHEL.

> Red Hat has the right to deny you service if you don't follow the service
> agreement.  Stop.

Correct.

> So, as a summary:
>
> You can copy the code you get from RHN to any machine you want.  This,
> though, will invalidate your service agreement so RH can prevent you from
> getting NEW code *via* RHN.  This will also invalidate any SLA you have
> with RH.

You can do so within certain limits.  I can, for example, copy it internal
to my company/school without any problem.  But to copy it to others, I
need to at least make sure they know it is not from RH, does not come with
support from RH, does not have any warranty from RH, and in some cases I'll
need to remove any trademark references in doing so (which I don't have
to do if I copy it internally).  If I want to sell it or distribute it
with support then I very much must do the above including removing
their RH trademarks.  If I modify it and distribute it again, then again
I MUST make sure to do so.  Otherwise I'm in trademark violation by a)
using someone elses trademarks, b) misleading people as to the owner
and source of the software and trademarks, and c) misleading people as
to the support/contact source for the software.

In addition, I can't claim ownership of it if I want to distribute it
without modifications (since RH owns/copyrights it).  If I want to
claim onership, I need to show cause (via modifications, removals, or
additions, for example).

So, can you copy it?  Yes, in some cases, in some forms, with some
modifications.  How, where, and why you copy it changes the rules for
how you can copy/distribute it.

Red Hat makes this all pretty clear on their web site and in their licenses.

> --
> William Hooper

--
Eric Rostetter