Hats!

[Karsten Wade]

On Tue, 2007-06-05 at 10:55 +0200, Stefan Held wrote:
> Am Dienstag, den 05.06.2007, 10:47 +0200 schrieb Nicolas Mailhot:
> > Le Mar 5 juin 2007 10:32, Stefan Held a écrit :
> 
> > Red Hat Marketing and Legal wants no risk of confusion between RHEL
> > and Fedora
> 
> This is why i said we maybe have to discuss this again.

Sorry, why is that a reason to discuss this again?

> Trust me, i have recent and respectfull sources who said they think like
> i do.

I guess I'm a bit confused about the "not wearing a red fedora" rule for
Ambassadors.  That is something that is hard to make a rule.  For
example, I attend Bay Area Linux events as an Ambassador and as a Red
Hat associate.  If I wear my red fedora at the Fedora booth at LWCE, I
dare anyone to tell me I cannot wear it.  But I probably _won't_ wear
it, because it confuses people.  I'm not there as a representative of
Red Hat, but as a Fedora community member.  For me, this is a VERY BIG
DIFFERENCE, and I think the same is true for all people who work for Red
Hat and are a part of Fedora.[1]

The core of all this is the way trademark laws work.  Red Hat has the
"Shadowman" logo trademarked, which is a human face in the shadow of a
fedora he is wearing.  It is obvious that, if Fedora were to use a hat
in any form as part of its logo, it would confuse people as to what was
Red Hat and what Fedora.  Ironically, because of trademark laws, Red Hat
would likely have to enforcing its trademark against Fedora.  *ick*
This is because, to keep a trademark current, one has to defend it
against _all_ abuses, intentional or not.

Now, an Ambassador wearing a red fedora at a Fedora booth doesn't seem
much like "trademark infringement."  But it could be confusing to
people.  So, maybe instead of it being a confusing rule, it could be a
guideline -- "Ambassadors, please don't wear a red fedora or Red Hat
gear at Fedora events, it confuses people."  Is that good enough?

- Karsten

[1] To expand on that a bit ... Red Hat (RHT) is a public company with
very strict rules (in the US in particular) about what can and cannot be
discussed publicly.  Fedora is the opposite of that -- there is almost
nothing that cannot or should not be discussed in public.

So, if I were at a Fedora booth, wearing all Red Hat gear, and talking
about what is coming on the Fedora technology roadmap, I'm sure that is
going to create confusion for someone.  What if a financial analyst
comes by, decides I'm giving insider information, and acts upon it?  A
series of coincidences could lead to me being arrested for violating
insider trading laws, as well as out on the street without a job. 

IANAL, but as a layperson who has been trained on what I can and cannot
do under US Federal laws, I have a pretty clear idea of what is risky
behavior.  So, I wear 100% Fedora gear at Fedora booths, and when people
ask if I work for Red Hat, I say, "Yes, but that has nothing to do with
why I'm here," etc.  In fact, until _very_recently_, my Red Hat job was
unrelated to my volunteer Fedora work.  But because of my position in
the company and the project, it would be easy to get confused about when
I was speaking for one or the other group.  Wearing one set of "colors"
helps take care of that.
-- 
   Karsten Wade, 108 Editor       ^     Fedora Documentation Project 
 Sr. Developer Relations Mgr.     |  fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject
   quaid.108.redhat.com           |          gpg key: AD0E0C41
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