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Linking...Linking...Posted Feb 17, 2005 18:26 UTC (Thu) by jmalcolm (guest, #8876)In reply to: There's a problem, though by JoeBuck Parent article: A look at CentOS
I am hoping that this is just a misunderstanding either by the lawyer or those of us reading his statements out of context.
RedHat is clearly concerned about the context of the linking. They do not want you to say that your product is identical to RedHat but without the fees. I do not think that they are saying that you cannot link to their site for any reason. Many, many sites link to RedHat and this is the first I have heard of such a policy.
Perhaps the reason that CentOS is so happy to comply with RedHat is not only the risk of legal action but also empathy towards the hand that feeds it. Finding a way to allow a community reproduction of RHEL without signifcantly impacting RedHat's bottom line is in the interest of both parties. Without RedHat there is no CentOS.
If RedHat had suddenly become as malicious as some of the net postings imply I very much doubt that SRPMS for RHEL4 would still be available to everyone. I just updated my CentOS 4 system this morning with a slew of new updates and I know that I have RedHat to thank for that as much as the CentOS team.
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Linking... Posted Feb 18, 2005 20:07 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] RedHat is clearly concerned about the context of the linking. They do not want you to say that your product is identical to RedHat but without the fees.Sure, they're concerned, and justifiably so. But the point is that trademark law doesn't give them any right to do anything about it. Trademark law stops me from saying that my product is Red Hat; it doesn't stop me from saying it's equivalent to Red Hat. Unless the context reaches the level of libel, I can't see any legal way Red Hat can stop someone from referring to its web site. People once thought HTML linking might be a form of copying or encouraging copying, and therefore be controlled by copyright, but courts have said otherwise.
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