can I sell fedora?

Greg DeKoenigsberg gdk at redhat.com
Mon Oct 25 14:29:11 UTC 2004


To jump into the fray:

Yes, you can burn Fedora CDs and sell them.  Don't advertise them as
something they're not (i.e. a supported Red Hat product), and don't modify
anything.

This answer comes to you straight from The Legal Stratosphere (tm), from 
Red Hat's humble servant, yours truly.

--g

_____________________  ____________________________________________
  Greg DeKoenigsberg ] [ the future masters of technology will have
 Community Relations ] [ to be lighthearted and intelligent.  the
             Red Hat ] [ machine easily masters the grim and the 
                     ] [ dumb.  --mcluhan

> On Sat, 2004-10-23 at 21:24 -0700, dyzelinis wrote:
> > So you think I can not sell software per se? 
> 
> Nobody ever does it, at least not frequently or on a daily basis.
> 
> Not even Microsoft. They don't actually sell you Microsoft Windows. They
> charge you a certain amount of money for the boxed version and the
> opportunity to agree with certain conditions in order to use that copy
> of _their_ software.
> 
> When you sell, you actually transfer something, so you can say that they
> sell you the plastic, the paper, and the sticky thing with a license
> registration number.
> 
> > If i burn Fedora CDs, find a customer and sell the CDs lets say for a
> > 50$. I know its too much just for burning CD :). But the point is:
> > will I break the license rules? If i can sell Fedora CDs, is there a
> > limit for the highest price?
> 
> You will break no license. You must understand that you don't actually
> really sell software. You charge for the act of transfering a copy, and
> since FC is all Free Software... you're already authorized to distribute
> copies, that's the third Freedom of Free Software.
> 
> In practice, it ends up with the same reward of selling: getting some
> money in exchange for something.
> 
> For more on what is Free Software read:
>    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

> > Joel <rees at ddcom.co.jp> wrote:
> >  >Anyone who gets those CD(s) can use Linux freely and can
> >  > even resell them for a reasonable fee. But if the CDs are
> >  > bad, anyone who has sold those CDs has to provide another
> >  > copy for free.
> >
> > This not necessarily true.  Firstly, the last sentence of
> > Section 1 of the GPL:
> >
> > You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a
> > copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in
> > exchange for a fee. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > (my emphasis)
> > The GPL does not oblige you to offer a warranty. 
> 
> No, but the Fedora trademark Guidelines 
> (http://fedora.redhat.com/about/trademarks/guidelines/page4.html) 
> do:
> "If they charge a fee for the CD-ROM or other media on which they 
> deliver the Fedoraâ„¢ code, they warranty the media on which the 
> Fedoraâ„¢ code is delivered, thus ensuring that the recipient 
> receives a usable copy."
> 
> -- 
>  Markku Kolkka
>  markku.kolkka at iki.fi




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