can I sell fedora?

[Christopher A. Williams]

On Sun, 2004-10-24 at 05:31 -0700, dyzelinis wrote:
> Yes, that is exactly to the point! I want my friend company to sell Fedora to
> me, and I will get tax refund, and I can share that refund with my friend. Our
> law says, that I will get tax refund, when I by new OS software. With Windows,
> SUSE and other comercial OS'es everything is fine, because someone sells the
> software and I can buy it. 
> 
> I want to know is it legal to sell Fedora per se. Can someone sell not only
> _the discs_ with Fedora, but the software per se? Are there any restriction
> that comes from RedHat? I need to buy Fedora like I buy Windows and I need that
> my friend could sell Fedora like he sells Windows. That is the main question.
> Is it legal for RedHat?
> 
> By the way, in my coutry average salary per week is $100, so the amount of
> money we talk about is rather big :)

I think, for purposes of clarification, you have your answer from the
sum of other posts. Note that IANAL, but there is published
documentation from Red Hat on this specific issue which has to have been
blessed by Red Hat's lawyers.

As I have interpreted the license, you can "sell" Fedora in very much
the same way that Windows is "sold". Note that in both cases, the
software itself is *not* sold. You are acquiring a license which gives
you the right to use the software with some specific restrictions.

In case of Fedora, this is the GPL, which gives you the right to copy,
modify and re-distribute the software for a reasonable fee as long as
you do so under the GPL, but there are some additional limitations on
the Fedora name and logos which are trademarked by Red Hat. Note that
specifically, Red Hat has said that if you modify Fedora, you can not
call your modified version Fedora and you also can not use the Red Hat
trademarked Fedora logos or images. In fact, you can't use any name for
your modified version that could confuse the market with Fedora. In
addition, if you charge a fee to re-distribute Fedora, you must warranty
the media. In other words, if you sell a defective Fedora CD to someone,
you must offer a free replacement. See the trademark rules section on
the Fedora Site for more. Specifically:

http://fedora.redhat.com/about/trademarks/guidelines/page4.html

In effect, because you are charging a fee to re-distribute Fedora, the
software license the "buyer" receives is a contract between them and Red
Hat. You're just the "middle man" making a small profit for your trouble
to assist with the transaction. You have the right in this case to
charge what the market will bear, and others have already shown what the
market is currently bearing in specific places.

In the case of Windows, it's the Microsoft proprietary license you are
dealing with. Among other things, you generally do not get the right to
modify, copy or re-distribute Windows for any practical purpose.
Microsoft has implemented technology in their products to prevent
copying and distribution, and also has an army of lawyers ready to
pounce on you if you violate the license.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Chris


--
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When the solution is simple,
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