Re: [gentoo-nfp] Gentoo Trademark License (name/logo usage)

[Sven Vermeulen]

On Fri, Dec 20, 2013 at 12:31:40PM +0100, Ulrich Mueller wrote:
> Some thoughts:
>
> - The text switches between the terms "license" and "license
>   agreement", obviously considering them as synonyms. While both terms
>   are not very well defined, "license agreements" [1] or EULAs are
>   often used to restrict the rights granted to users by law. However,
>   in our case the purpose is to have a license [2] that in some cases
>   allows usage of the (otherwise restricted) trademark.
>
>   So, could the term "license" be used throughout? Especially in the
>   page title and main heading?

Certainly.

> - The first section heading is redundant (as it repeats the main
>   heading). Maybe change it to "Preamble" or "Preliminaries"?

Good idea.

> - In section "Gentoo-related software projects", how is the term
>   "official Gentoo project software" defined?

Ok, I'll see if I can find a proper definition for this. Something along the
lines of "Official Gentoo project software is software whose main homepage
is hosted on the gentoo.org domain" or so?

> - In the same section, it says "distributed under the terms of an
>   OSI-approved open source license". So if I distribute my project
>   under GPL for the code and CC-BY-SA for the documentation, then I
>   cannot use the trademark, because CC-BY-SA is not in the OSI's list?
>
>   I suggest to change the phrase to "distributed under a free license
>   approved by the Free Software Foundation or the Open Source
>   Initiative".
[... followup post ...]
> Make this "free and open-source software distributed under a license
> approved by the Free Software Foundation or the Open Source Initiative",
> in order to avoid the loophole of binary-only distributed under BSD.

Ok. I took OSI from our social contract, but I agree with your suggestion.

That being said, your mention of the documentation does make me think that
the license is quite service/software oriented. I'll do a read-up through it
and see how documentation falls into it.

> - Section "Products and services serving the community" says: "The
>   website or product does not use the official Gentoo logo or color
>   palette in its design, except as provided for by earlier sections in
>   this license". The only relevant mention of the logo in such earlier
>   sections seems to be in "Groups and Events" which has rather
>   restrictive requirements (e.g., on the name of the group).

I think the other sections are also relevant. Some services that "serve the
community" can still use the Gentoo logo as per "Service Identification"
section, for instance.

>   So I wonder if that covers logo usage by the German Gentoo e.V. [3]?
>   What about sites like znurt.org [4]?

Strictly speaking, Gentoo e.V. still falls under the previous name/logo
usage guidelines. That being said, I do think their usage still falls under
the principles of this license as well:

- The image they use adds in the "Förderverein Gentoo e.V." words (which
  denotes the audience imo)
- There are no implications that it is official (Förderverein = "friends
  of")

The znurt.org site doesn't even match the current name/logo usage
guidelines. It should at least mention that it isn't an official site.
Following the document, I would also suggest to make the logo a link to the
main gentoo site.

> - The current usage guidelines mention the Gentoo file manager
>   (app-misc/gentoo) as an exception. This has been dropped in the new
>   draft. Is the intention to restrict them in using the Gentoo name?
>   AFAICS, their usage goes back to 1998 and therefore predates ours.

Definitely not the intention. I'll add it in again.

Do you think the license is an improvement versus the current one (about
making things more clear)?

One of the things Django does is to add in a FAQ link (something we'll
probably do as well), which I think will help as we can then document all
additional questions we had regarding the license.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the feedback, much appreciated (really).

Wkr,
	Sven Vermeulen