토발즈, 리눅스 상표권 주장으로 '집중포화'

왜 비난하는지 이해가 안되더군요. 상표와 특허는 엄연히 다른 개념인데...
조금 기사가 과장된 면이 있지만 이번 케이스에 맹비난 하는 쪽은 아마 커뮤니티에 독이 되는 부류라고 볼 수 있을 것 같습니다. (뇌없이 움직이는..)

리누스가 이번 문제에 대해 어떤 입장인지에 관계없이 리눅스에 대한 상표권을 관리하는 LMI(Linux Mark Institute)의 홈페이지에서 명시한 대로라면 상당한 논란이 될 수밖에 없는 문제입니다.

예를들어 저 사용권 계약을 곧이 곧대로 적용하면 이름에 'Linux'가 들어가는 KLDP도 분명 'services that deploy, document, facilitate the use of, or enhance Linux-based goods'에 포함되는 비영리 단체기 때문에 LMI에 1년에 200 달러의 사용료를 지불해야 합니다. 또한 여기에 해당하지 않더라도 리눅스를 언급하려면 'Linux

Goods/Services 라는 것은 앞에서 명시된 것에 의하면 marketing하는 것에 국한됩니다.

일단 www.kerneltrap.org 에 있는 Linus의 메시지를 먼저 읽어 주시기를 바랍니다. 간단하게 요약을 하면 만약 KLDP 라는 이름이 Linux라는 이름을 사용하는 현재 상태로 분쟁없이 그에 대한 소유(?)권을 주장하려면 Linux라는 이름이 이미 등록된 상표이므로 LMI에 사용료를 지불하고 보호를 받으라는 것입니다. 만약 다른 사람이나 단체가 KLDP라는 것을 써도 상관이 없다면 그럴 필요는 없다는 말입니다. 아마 이미 등록된 상표를 포함하는 이름으로 "독점적인" 상표를 주장하고자 하려면 그렇게 해야 하는 모양입니다. KLDP라는 이름을 "독점적인" 상표로 주장/이용할 것이 아니라면 LMI에 등록을 할 필요도 없는 것이죠. 그리고 위에 누군가가 정리를 하신 것 같기는 한데, 상표에 대한 권리를 가지려면(Sublicensing) LMI에 등록을 해야 됩니다.(이말이 곧 위에 옮겨 적은 말을 좀 더 전문적으로 쓴 것 같습니다만)

기사의 내용을 따라가기 전에 메일링에 있는 원래의 이야기를 먼저 읽어들 봤으면 합니다.

Letters have been sent to all the known commercial vendors of Linux-based products or services who are likely to be using the word Linux as a description, or part of a description, of their products and services. If you have received such a letter, you are urged to follow the instructions a contained in it

전후상황이나 모든 사정은 이해되고 전적으로 공감하지만....

가격이 너무 비싸군요. 비영리의 경우에도 200불이나 받다니...

LMI의 주장이 그렇다면 그것은 정말 무모합니다. 리눅스 코드들에 특허가 걸려있지 않은 한, 공개된 코드를 이용해서 다른 이름의 커널을 개발하여 "새눅스"이렇게 이름만 다르게 붙이고 GPL을 따르면 LMI에서는 할말이 없지 않을까요? 리눅스 사용자들이 윈도그 사용자들의 대부분처럼 더미들이라면 모를까, 그렇지가 않은데 모두들 쉽게 새로운 이름으로 옮겨갈 수 있잖아요?

From: "Linus Torvalds" <torvalds@osdl.org>
Cc: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2005 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: [OT]Linus trademarks Linux?!!

Gaah. I don't tend to bother about slashdot, because quite frankly, the
whole _point_ of slashdot is to have this big public wanking session with
people getting together and making their own "insightful" comment on any
random topic, whether they know anything about it or not.

[ And don't get me wrong - I follow slashdot too, exactly because it's fun
to see people argue. I'm not complaining ;]

And I don't tend to worry about the Inquirer and the Register, because
both of them are all about being rough and saying things in ways that
might not be acceptable in other places, and that's what makes them fun to
read. So when they then write something nasty about Linux (or me), hey, it
goes with the territory.

But I was really hoping this particular wanking session wouldn't overflow
into Linux-kernel.

Anyway, the posting Jesper points to is a fine one. Partly to show that
this trademark thing sure as hell isn't anything new, and partly because
the rules really haven't changed.

So let's repeat that link again, just as background,

http://boudicca.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/2000week04/0654.html

and then people should think a bit (and maybe research) what a trademark
really means.

A trademark exists to set up some rules about using a "mark" (name, logo,
you name it) in trade. The people who pay to license (or get a unique
trademark of their own) a certain name do so because they care about that
particular name. People who don't care, don't pay. It's really that easy.
It's about getting legal protection for a particular name.

For example, this means that a _user_ would never pay a single cent over a
trademark. I don't know why/how the Inq even came to that "companies to
pay for using free software" idea. It shows a total lack of understanding
about what a trademark is in the first place.

Now, a company that has a company name usually _does_ want to protect
their name. Not always, but it's kind of embarrassing (and easily an
expensive and big bother) if somebody else trademarks that name, and then
sends a cease-and-desist order to you and forces you to switch to
something else.

So you'll find that most commerical entities protect their name some way,
regardless of _what_ that name is. For example, let's say that you called
your company or distribution "Lipro", then you'd like to trademark that.
Goodie. It's pretty expensive, but most companies feel that it's more than
worth it to know that you've got exclusive rights to that name, and nobody
else can force you to change,

So the first point here is that regardless of you call your Linux
distribution "Linux Something" or something totally different, you'll want
to protect that name if you are serious about making a big commercial
distribution. Exactly because you do _not_ want to be in the situation
that somebody else hijacks your name from you.

Now, you can do that protection two different ways: you can make up a
unique name of your own ("Red Hat" or "Linspire" or "Debian" or whatever),
and trademark that. Then the trademark office keeps track of things, and
guarantees that there are no clashes (within your business area).

Or, alternatively, you can ask somebody else who already has a unique name
if they might "sublicense" their name in combination with something else.
In the case of "Linux", that name is already guaranteed unique by the
trademark office, so let's say that you felt that you wanted to have a
unique name that contained that, you'd approach LMI and say "I want to
call my magazine LinuxJournal, can you write up paperwork that makes sure
that nobody else can do so"?

And let's repeat: somebody who doesn't want to _protect_ that name would
never do this. You can call anything "MyLinux", but the downside is that
you may have somebody else who _did_ protect himself come along and send
you a cease-and-desist letter. Or, if the name ends up showing up in a
trademark search that LMI needs to do every once in a while just to
protect the trademark (another legal requirement for trademarks), LMI
itself might have to send you a cease-and-desist-or-sublicense it letter.

At which point you either rename it to something else, or you sublicense
it. See? It's all about whether _you_ need the protection or not, not
about whether LMI wants the money or not.

As to the "cease-and-desist or sublicense the mark" letters, they are
sadly directly brought on by the requirements of maintaining a trademark.
If you have a trademark, you have to police it, which means that you have
to do trademark searches to see who uses it in a commercial setting, and
make sure that they use it properly.

So to answer a particular question that came up here on Linux-kernel:
"Does the linuxjournal.com pay $5000?".

First off, I don't know where the $5000 came from - it's different for
different classes of people. Secondly, LinuxJournal was one of the
companies that raised the money to get the "Linux" trademark in the first
place! As a result, they don't pay a red cent, because they had been part
of protecting the name in the first place. And yes, they paid real lawyers
to do so. Their sublicense got "grandfathered in".

Finally, just to make it clear: not only do I not get a cent of the
trademark money, but even LMI (who actually administers the mark) has so
far historically always lost money on it. That's not a way to sustain a
trademark, so they're trying to at least become self-sufficient, but so
far I can tell that lawyers fees to _give_ that protection that commercial
companies want have been higher than the license fees. Even pro bono
lawyers chanrge for the time of their costs and paralegals etc.

Linux International has paid for it, maddog has worked on it on his own
time, and various companies have helped chip in (like the original
companies and people who got the trademark in the first place).

Linus
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From: "Kernel Hacker" <kernel@dacodecz.org>
To: "Linus Torvalds" <torvalds@osdl.org>
Cc: "LKML" <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 2:08 AM
Subject: Re: [OT]Linus trademarks Linux?!!

Linus Torvalds wrote:
> Gaah. I don't tend to bother about slashdot, because quite frankly, the
> whole _point_ of slashdot is to have this big public wanking session with
> people getting together and making their own "insightful" comment on any
> random topic, whether they know anything about it or not.

Thanks Sire!
No more confusion, now.

Regards
DD

>
> Linus

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