Re: [gentoo-dev] Ethical Policy

[mbutcher]

One other rhetorical question:

Wouldn't it make sense for Gentoo to buy other gentoo related names (e.g. 
gentoo.com, gentoo.net, gentoo-for-money.com) in order to prevent other 
companies from registering those names and claiming to be affiliated with 
Gentoo Technologies? Why, then, would registration of other domains be proof 
of devious motives?

On Monday 04 February 2002 12:42 pm, you wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Thanks, for writing but again you're avoiding the question, for example a
> quote from your website:
>
> "Gentoo Linux is a versatile and fast, completely free x86-based Linux
> distribution"
>
> will it stay completely free, if so and considering you are not a charity
> how do you plan to make money?  I assume you do plan to make money out of
> the distro?
>
> "For the most part, these expenses have been coming out of my and our
> volunteer network admin's pockets"  - This sounds like you are generous,
> good spirited, etc.  But actually this is true for any startup company,
> would I have volenteered or donated money to the startup company called
> microsoft, I don't think so.  So again if you want to be treated
> differently to any other startup company, I think you need to explain how
> you are different to the other startup companies.
>
> Does Gentoo Technologies own any domains other than gentoo.org?
>
> And a final point to Chuck Haines, I'm not critising the quality of the
> distro, quite the opposite, the portage system is one of the cleaverest,
> best designed, therotically superior pieces of software I've seen.  I quite
> sure the rest of the distro is of equal quaility.
>
> Regards,
> David Herbert
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Daniel Robbins" <drobbins@g.o>
> To: <gentoo-dev@g.o>
> Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 7:20 PM
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Ethical Policy
>
> > On Sun, 2002-02-03 at 06:59, David Herbert wrote:
> > > Call me paranoid but before putting effort into gentoo I would like to
>
> know more about who gentoo is.
>
> > > You're a .org but are you actually a charity?
> >
> > No, we're not a charity but we accept donations to help offset
> > development/hosting/hardware costs. For the most part, these expenses
> > have been coming out of my and our volunteer network admin's pockets.
> > The "donate" button is there so that those who enjoy Gentoo Linux can
> > freely offer their support for our project.
> >
> > > What is your relationship to gentoo.com?
> >
> > Our domain names both have "gentoo" in them.
> >
> > > What is your relationship with IBM?
> >
> > None, other than I do contract work for them (indirectly) to pay my
> > bills.
> >
> > > I suppose I'm looking for a statement akin to debian's social contract,
>
> because at present any ethics (which to me is the whole point of linux) are
> only implied.
>
> > I don't think that a Gentoo Linux social contract would necessarily be a
> > bad thing.  However, from past experience I've found that these kinds of
> > written "ethical guidelines" are often not followed or respected.  I
> > also don't see anything in the Debian Social Contract that is anything
> > special.  "We won't hide problems"?  Isn't this stuff kind of obvious
> > for a free software project?  But there are some good things in there.
> > I don't really see this as a "social contract" (since it's not as if
> > it's enforceable), but more like design/policy guidelines.
> >
> > > Also it would be nice to have a global option (in /etc/make.conf ?) for
>
> allowing only GPL'ed software, GPL + other "open source" licences, or any
> licence - so the end user can decide.
>
> > Yes, we plan to add that feature at some point.
> >
> > Best Regards,
> >
> > --
> > Daniel Robbins                                  <drobbins@g.o>
> > Chief Architect/President                       http://www.gentoo.org
> > Gentoo Technologies, Inc.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > gentoo-dev@g.o
> > http://lists.gentoo.org/mailman/listinfo/gentoo-dev
>
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