On Sun, 2004-09-26 at 09:54, Paul M Foster wrote:
> Additionally, retailers like CheapBytes were forced by Red Hat to change
> the name of their distros to things like "Pink Tie" to protect Red Hat's
> trademark.
I don't think Red Hat forced Cheapbytes, but Cheapbytes _did_ make a
"big deal" about it.
Red Hat's problem wasn't people who made _verbatim_ copies for
redistribution. It was with companies like Sun who made _derivatives_
without removing the trademarks. That was killer, because (at that
time), Sun had _not_ licensed _anything_ from Red Hat.
But in the end, it comes down to the same issue -- unlicensed
redistribution of trademark. It then becomes a matter of sheer volume,
one where Red Hat has been massively redistributed over any other
_commercial_ distribution.
Hence Red Hat's licensing behind the Fedora trademark. They _had_ to
change the name. The Fedora Project was just the most compatible and
capable 3rd party RPM repository, hence their move.
> As a publicly traded company, Red Hat now had to protect its
> IP to protect the investment of its shareholders.
Exactly. Otherwise, the name "Red Hat(R)" would be free for Microsoft
to use. ;-ppp
> This also limited Red Hat's exposure on support issues;
That was just a side issue. In fact, Red Hat _never_ offered much
support for Red Hat Linux, hence why they introduced Red Hat Enterprise
Linux after their "additional support options" in Red Hat Linux 6.2"E"
didn't gather the same level of interest.
That all happened _over_ a year before Fedora. Fedora just solved so
many issues, but it's still quite Red Hat at the helm -- right down to
the developers, servers and network infrastructure.
> they couldn't afford to provide support to thousands of users who
> bought cheap CD copies of their distro through outlets like this.
Again, that was _not_ so much because of CheapBytes, but because of
companies like Sun.
-- Bryan J. Smith b.j.smith@ieee.org ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Communities don't have rights. Only individuals in the community have rights. ... That idea of community rights is firmly rooted in the 'Communist Manifesto.'" -- Michael Badnarik----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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