RH Decisions (was Re: APT, Yum and Red Carpet)

[Matt Wilson]

On Wed, Aug 13, 2003 at 10:21:53PM -0500, Kyle Maxwell wrote:
> 
> But some decisions are starting to leave me in the cold. I think that
> the trademark restrictions are more onerous than they need to be,

This has probably been stated before, but trademark defense
requirements are not something that Red Hat has control over.  US and
International trademark law places these requirements on trademark
holders.  I think that the existing trademark usage guidelines for Red
Hat Linux are in line with and compatible with Open Source/Free
Software projects.  Apache has restrictions on who can use the Apache
name, as does Debian.

> I think that the decision to completely pull the RHL website and
> leave everyone completely in the cold while they decide what
> additional information to add is a bad idea too

Yes, of course this isn't an ideal situation.  This is far from the
ideal course of events we expected.  There is some progress on some
refinements to the content of the web site.  Don't expect huge
changes.  We are still very committed to making this a successful
project.

> RHL is really at a cusp right now, and giving us the cold shoulder --
> worse, *pulling* the information that we had for reasons that still
> haven't truly been explained -- isn't going to take it in the right
> direction.

Trust me, we're not intending to give you the cold shoulder at all.
We were excited with our new project, and I think rushed to get things
out.  Please be patient with us as we put some finishing touches on
the site, and have better answers to some of the questions that have
come up (like yours about trademark issues).

Cheers,

Matt
msw at redhat.com
--
Matt Wilson
Manager, Base Operating Systems
Red Hat, Inc.