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["Andrew \"ruskie\" Levstik" <ruskie AT mages.ath.cx>]

Here's a quote from an interesting comment on GrokLaw
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The Linux® Trademark - Tempest in a Teapot
Authored by: Malor on Tuesday, August 16 2005 @ 11:23 AM EDT
I've been using Linux for a very, very long time, (somewhere in the 0.8 
kernel series) and I 
disagree completely that the anger is unfounded.

A non-profit usage of the Linux trademark should be $1/year, payable in 
advance for a 
20-year term. It is just wrong to soak people who want to release GPL distros 
for $200 year. 
Talk about a slap in the face... doing all the work to build a distro for a 
specific 
purpose, but not being able to call it Linux without coughing up? That is a 
pile of crap.

I'd have no problem whatsoever with charging for-profit distros, like, say, 
Mandrake or Red 
Hat. And perhaps there should be a special mark for those who voluntarily 
choose to send in 
some extra money.

But the word Linux, while it can't be 100% free because of trademark law, 
should be licensed 
for the cheapest possible fee. I'm suggesting the $20 minimum, but even that 
might be too 
high. What if some guy in China who makes 25 cents a day wants to call HIS 
product Linux and 
distribute it in Australia? $20 would be a real hardship...$200 is totally 
unworkable.

Folks in Australia are right to be upset. The kernel itself, as Richard 
Stallman is so fond 
of reminding us, is only a very small portion of the overall system. The rest 
of userspace 
has inherited the kernel's name, more or less by default. A full, running 
Linux system has 
an absolutely huge amount of code in it that Linus didn't write, didn't 
manage, and isn't 
responsible for. Claiming a $200 toll just for writing the kernel is 
absolutely 
unreasonable.

I have steadfastly refused to use the term GNU/Linux, but for the first time, 
I'm seriously 
reconsidering that. 
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-- 
Andrew "ruskie" Levstik
Source Mage GNU/Linux Games grimoire guru

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