The Rails Wheels licencing system and Open Source

[Mark James]

Michael Tiemann wrote:

> You can download the SRPMS from Red Hat's site, but you cannot build a 
> branded Red Hat product without  using the Red Hat trademarks.  
> Trademarks, as I'm sure you know and understand, are wholly separate 
> from copyright.  And the OSD provides for "Integrity of the Author's 
> Work" which means that somebody can say "I made this" and prevent others 
> from attributing /their/ product to the original author.  So, no, and 
> with good reason, you cannot build a branded Red Hat product from Red 
> Hat sources.  However, you can build a Mark James branded product and 
> sell subscriptions (like Oracle) or not (like CentOS).  And you can 
> claim, as Oracle and CentOS both do, that the binaries you build are 
> Just As Good As Red Hat's (as long as do don't make claims that infringe 
> Red Hat's trademark, and as long as the claims you make are legal in 
> every jurisdiction in which you plan to make them).
> 
> As to the question of practicality, years ago Red Hat collected all the 
> many places that Red Hat trademarks and brand had crept into its 
> packaging and distilled it to one or two packages that can be included 
> (if you are Red Hat) or excluded (if you are not) in a trivial way.  So, 
> no, Red Hat is not using its brand or its trademarks as any kind of 
> end-run around all the rights one would expect with open source 
> software.  We could have tried to make it difficult, but we opted to 
> make it transparent and authentic.

I understand.

So Red Hat Linux is commercial Open Source software that is
associated with support subscriptions that are effectively optional,
both because binary-compatible alternatives are available, and
because the software continues to function after a subscription
expires.

The Red Hat system wouldn't work for Rails Wheels because
we list less complex software that calls for more development
work than support work. And the Rails Wheels system wouldn't
work for Red Hat because of Linux's Pollockian ownership.

Mark