Installing fedora at school

Temlakos temlakos at gmail.com
Fri Jan 28 16:23:06 UTC 2005


Craig White wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-01-28 at 16:37 +0100, Danial Rehman wrote:
> 
>>My school is thinking of installing linux on some of the computers,
>>and were wondering if it's legal to use linux for non-private usage. I
>>really didn't get what they meant but something about linux only
>>beeing free if your going to install for yourself and not for a whole
>>school or corporation or whatever.
>>
>>So I'm wondering if it's allowed to get fedora for about 10 compters
>>at my school the legal way.
>>I always thought linux was free for everyone?
> 
> ----
> free as in speech AND free as in beer
> 
> Fedora information can be found at:
> http://fedora.redhat.com/
> 
> License info can generally be found here:
> http://fedora.redhat.com/licenses/
> 
> Specific End User License Agreement for Fedora Core:
> http://fedora.redhat.com/licenses/eula.html
> 
> There are trademark and other restrictions if you plan on 'repackaging'
> for other purposes and or selling it - mostly GNU type restrictions.
> 
> But specifically to answer your question, you may install on as many of
> your school (or corporate) computers as you wish.
> 
> Craig
> 

I'll second the above.

I quote the relevant text of the Fedora Core license:

"2. Intellectual Property Rights. The Software and each of its 
components, including the source code, documentation, appearance, 
structure and organization are copyrighted by Fedora Project and others 
and are protected under copyright and other laws. Title to the Software 
and any component, or to any copy, modification, or merged portion shall 
remain with the aforementioned, subject to the applicable license. The 
“Fedora” trademark is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. (“Red Hat”) in the 
U.S. and other countries and is used by permission. This agreement 
permits User to distribute unmodified copies of Software using the 
Fedora trademark on the condition that User follows Red Hat's trademark 
guidelines located at http://fedora.redhat.com/legal/. User must abide 
by these trademark guidelines when distributing the Software, regardless 
of whether the Software has been modified. If User modifies the 
Software, then User must replace all images containing the “Fedora” 
trademark. Those images are found in the anaconda-images and the 
fedora-logos packages. Merely deleting these files may corrupt the 
Software."

Note carefully: "This agreement permits User to distribute unmodified 
copies of Software using the Fedora trademark on the condition that User 
follows Red Hat's trademark guidelines." If you're not going to modify 
Fedora Core--and it doesn't sound as though you're trying to build a new 
distro--then you can install on however many computers you own or are 
otherwise responsible for, in any setting whatever.

I have never run across a distro that requires a "per-seat" license fee. 
In fact, Linux does not distribute for a /license/ fee at all--but only 
for a one-shot donative or a subscription fee for either regular updates 
or technical support or both. Such agreements cover every single 
computer that the end user is responsible for. Even RHEL, as expensive 
as it is, charges a fee /per site/ and not per seat.

Fedora Core charges no fees at all. That's because technical support is 
by volunteers, and they're on this list (or should be).

What kind of school are you running? Does it by any chance teach 
/advanced/ computer science? If so, did you think about setting up a 
user's group to deal with technical issues? The more brains, the merrier.

Temlakos




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