So, Red Hat is cracking
down on cheap CD sites and telling them that they can no longer put the
name "Red Hat" on CDs containing Red Hat Linux. I think these sites should get
together and come up with a code name for Red Hat Linux like "BoneHead Linux"
or "Bob Young is a Greedy Bastard Linux". I understand evhead's point that commercial software
companies need to protect their trademarks and the reputation of their products
but the game changes when you're selling a GPLed product. CDs with Red Hat
Linux on them are riddled with references to Red Hat. I can tell my CDs have
Red Hat on them because the first line of the README file says "Red Hat
Linux/Intel 7.1 (Seawolf)". If writing Red Hat on the CD is a trademark
violation, then so is distributing an unlabelled CD with that README file on
it. If Red Hat says that I can't redistribute Red Hat Linux in its current
form, then that's a violation of the GPL. I certainly hope Red Hat comes to its
senses and I certainly hope the next version of the GPL addresses this issue
explicitly.