From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?=) Subject: Re: MAME emulator is giving incentive to use non-free software Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:14:32 +0200 Message-ID: <878u11mnnr.fsf@gnu.org> References: <20160328215516.GA27719@protected.rcdrun.com> <877fglzmml.fsf@T420.taylan> <20160329101253.GA5567@protected.rcdrun.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:52006) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aktTk-0001tB-U3 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 Mar 2016 09:14:42 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1aktTg-0002UL-89 for guix-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 29 Mar 2016 09:14:40 -0400 In-Reply-To: <20160329101253.GA5567@protected.rcdrun.com> (Jean Louis's message of "Tue, 29 Mar 2016 12:12:53 +0200") List-Id: "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: guix-devel-bounces+gcggd-guix-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Jean Louis Cc: guix-devel@gnu.org Jean Louis skribis: > Please see what I mean: > http://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html#trade= marks > > The problem may arise from Nintendo, as they are owner of the > trademark. > > For your understanding: > > - I cannot just take your package definition and copy it on my website, > because it includes trademark, it is simply not free description of > the package. It asks for problems in future, with Nintendo.=20 > > - I cannot sell the package or that software, neither provide support, > in that shape or form, with the trademark Nintendo=C2=AE because I don't > have permission for that. > > - a software definition cannot be just made up with trademarks, > especially not with well known trademarks, and claimed to be GPL > licensed > > - software using trademarks within the source is also questionable. I respectfully think that this interpretation is incorrect. GPL software is certainly free, trademark or not. The FSDG item linked above is implicitly concerned with trademarks that relate to the name of the software package, as is the case with Firefox and (apparently) MAME. These are free software packages, but we may not be allowed to distribute them under these names. We still get the 4 freedoms, obviously, as long as changing the name is trivial (for instance Firefox has a =E2=80=98configure=E2=80=99 switch for that.) IIUC, the Nintendo emulators we=E2=80=99re talking about mention =E2=80=9CN= intendo=E2=80=9D in their synopsis, but that is most likely a legitimate use of the trademark=E2=80=94just like mentions of =E2=80=9CIntel=E2=80=9D, the =E2=80= =9CX Window System=E2=80=9D, etc. IMO, a valid reason why we could discuss exclusion of these packages is if they do not have any other use than playing non-free games. I guess this is an important use case, but I don=E2=80=99t know if it=E2=80=99s the= only one. Thoughts? Ludo=E2=80=99.