Anil said on Wed, Dec 24, 2003 at 09:45:45PM +0530,:
Here there is no case of trademark infringement. The CDs which are labelled with redhat logo contains only redhat distributed packages.
The first sentence contradicts the second.
The trouble comes from the Red Hat *logo*; not software.
The redistributor has the obligation to remove the logos from the packages if the sources and logos are interwined. (that is why they make the sources available).
Hope you are not involved with creation of the CD. This statement can be used by RH as proof of violation.
All the stuffs developed by CDIT is distributed in a CD with Akshaya logo. It does not contains any reference of redhat.
Whatever CDIT has attempted is legally justified.
Apparently, there are two CDs. One containing RPM binaries + sources of packages created by C-DIT for the Akshya project. The quote above apparently refers to this CD.
The other contains a customised version of RH. The first quote apparently refers to this CD. Hope I got it right. Then I take it that the letter from RH refers to the CD containing the OS.
May be, you distribute the ISO as it is from RH site; but, as pointed elsewhere, the RH trade mark policy does not permit that wholesale.
Maybe, C-DIT/Akshya is not charging anything for the CDs themselves. But whether one is doing a `commercial activity' is decided by the Courts by looking into other factors too.
But more than the Courts, we need to look into the ethical issues involved. RH does not like their logos to be used; the logos are not under a free license. Do not distribute them. Period. End of distribution.
The costs to be paid to the free software developer community by going ahead with such distribution will be high. The entire geographical region will have to bear that. Can we afford it??