Miscellaneous > The Lounge

Linus wants money for the word Linux

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mobrien_12:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050816092029989

Ok, we all know Linus owns the trademark on "Linux."  He's let people use it pretty liberally, so long as they don't call some software Linux that has nothing to do with his kernel.

Well, that's changed.  He's decided to start a nonprofit center "to protect the public and Linux

skyman8081:
If he doesn't enforce the trademark, then he stands a chance of losing it.

If that happened, some unscrupulous company could swoop it up, and be even worse.

hm_murdock:
It's one of those things in law that requires trollish behavior. If you don't act like a cunt, somebody else has the right to.

Refalm:
It's this kind of stuff that destroys a community. If this continues, we'll switch to BSD as the kernel.

Pathos:
The law was made so no one could register trademarks as placekeepers until someone wanted to use it then sell it eg squatting.

The fee is pittens for a commercial business. I would look to businesses associated with Linux to be generous and try cover some of the fees for the free distributions. All you need is 20 people to donate $10 a year per distribution and Linux will be safe.

It has to be done, Better safe then sorry.

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