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> I talked with Daniel yesterday. Basically the reason for this |
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> whole license thing is that there must be some garantees |
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> against the NFP falling appart. We hope there won't be fights |
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> in the board either, but in case such things happen, Daniel |
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> would be able to take the trademark, the GPL'ed source and |
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> the developers and continue the distribution. |
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There is no "special arrangment" in the NFP plan to allow me to do this. I |
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think the most that would be possible is something like this: if the NFP |
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totally disintegrates and ceases to function, I would be able to set up a |
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Web site (using these trademarks on the site legally) and either allow a new |
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community to form around the code, or allow any existing Gentoo community |
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continued use of their tradename and logo. |
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My lawyer (looking out for my best interests) initially wanted me to hold on |
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to the trademarks and grant a license to the NFP. I negotiated him down to |
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what I presented to everyone, that the trademarks will be transferred to the |
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NFP and the NFP in turn will issue a license to me. |
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|
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> After the NFP |
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> has lived for a while ( and has gone through several board |
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> changes ) this should not be necessary and the license could |
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> be given back. |
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If the NFP survives, it would still have ownership of the trademarks. |
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There's no way for me to take them from the NFP, so no need for the NFP to |
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take them back. The NFP could simply resume using them if (theoretically) it |
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shut down for a period of time but then resumed its mission. |
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The other reasoning for allowing me to use the marks is one of fairness. I |
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developed the "Gentoo" brand and committed myself to giving this brand |
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value. I personally designed the "G" logo (in blender; it was a lot of |
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work.) They could legitimately be sold to the NFP rather than just |
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transferred. This is what my lawyer suggested I do, because from his |
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perspective it is common sense. I again talked him down for just the ability |
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to continue to use them and thus keep running the Store as a separate entity |
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for as long as I choose. |
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Daniel |
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-- |
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gentoo-nfp@g.o mailing list |
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