Re: Debian logo & its license
James A. Treacy <treacy@debian.org> wrote:
> I hope that you are not trying to argue that there is no difference
> between a program and a logo. This is clearly ridiculous.
That's not my point. However, the definition of "software" is broad
enough to cover both, and the use of that particular word isn't going to
resolve the issue.
[Also, it's reasonable to talk about things which are both programs
(or, perhaps, things which map from some argument domain to some range
of results) and logos (or, perhaps, bitmapped images).]
> We seem to have a number of people talking past each other. One group
> want a logo with a relatively free license for uses such as web pages.
> This is perfectly reasonable.
Agreed.
> Another group of people are interested in a logo which is used for
> advertising products with the Debian name on it. Many people (me
> included), feel we need a more restrictive license on such a logo so
> that we may protect the name of Debian. We need to protect ourselves
> from abuse of such a logo as it may be used in ways that reflect badly
> on Debian. An example is some of the poor quality CDs that have been
> released with the name Debian on them.
I agree that this is an issue, but looking at our track record (especially
the problems with the official hamm cds), I don't think an official logo
is going to solve the problem.
I think a better approach to the distributor quality problem is to provide
distributor rating pages (basically just a concise list of significant
issues for each distributor). RMS might not like it (then again, I've
not asked him), but to me it seems like the right approach.
> The existence of this discussion, which is at least the 10th time it
> has been discussed, clearly indicates that we need to vote on this
> issue. A clear vote with some archives to point people to in the
> future should keep us from rehashing this every few months. There are
> much more important things for us to be doing.
The existence of a recurring discussion usually indicates an unsolved
problem. A vote might or might not resolve the underlying issue.
In this case, the discussion seems to have been triggered by the
expiration of the current logo license.
--
Raul
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