Nice ad hominem attack [LWN.net]

Nice ad hominem attack

Posted Oct 25, 2004 10:42 UTC (Mon) by job (subscriber, #670)
In reply to: Nice ad hominem attack by hppnq
Parent article: How to be a Free Software zealot (NewsForge)

Trademarks have everything to do with open source. Much like copyright
has everything to do with it. The GPL license builds on copyright law.
But if your GPL'd code contains lots of trademarked words, then trademark
laws are also in effect and can restrict distribution in ways the GPL was
designed to protect.

Much like Linux itself is a trademark of Linus, Linux itself is also a
copyright of numerous people. The license under which you can use it is
what open source is all about.

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Nice ad hominem attack

Posted Oct 25, 2004 12:42 UTC (Mon) by hppnq (subscriber, #14462) [Link]

But if your GPL'd code contains lots of trademarked words, then trademark laws are also in effect and can restrict distribution in ways the GPL was designed to protect.

If your code contains trademarks or copyrighted works that are not your own, normal restrictions apply. I'm pretty sure the GPL respects that, so what's the problem?

Nice ad hominem attack

Posted Oct 25, 2004 21:23 UTC (Mon) by job (subscriber, #670) [Link]

I was merely explaning how trademark law as well as copyright law can
retrict distribution of software, as you said they have nothing to do
with each other.

My original comment was about that I think that a software should have
all parts free (copyright as well as trademark license) to be considered
free as a whole, and gave Firefox as a counterexample.

Nice ad hominem attack

Posted Oct 25, 2004 21:50 UTC (Mon) by hppnq (subscriber, #14462) [Link]

I am not quite sure what you mean. The GPL is actually quite restrictive, and only through its restrictions does it provide freedom. This is a way of saying that freedom is not as simple as getting rid of as much restrictions as we can.