News :: Linus Trademarks Linux



Evidently, the head man himself, Linus Torvalds has decided to start charging companies for the use of the Linux name, to the tune of $5,000 American.

http://theinquirer.net/?article=25529

Personally, I see this as shooting himself in the foot.

Opinions, please.

-J.P.

Thats...disturbing.
There is no mention of it at Linux.org.au.
So does this mean you can't use the word Linux
in a company or product name without coughing up
5 Gs ?
What are we coming to.....

???

for what I understand Mr. Torvalds is not stopping anybody from using Linux software , it appears to me that he just wants to protect the "LINUX" trademark it seems that too many companies are jumping in the  bandwagon and calling their software LINUX this LINUX that , and charging a hefty price  for that .
or maybe is time to move forward on to something newer like lets say "HURD"
my two cents anyway.

I recently watched the movie 'Revolution OS', which is a few years old, but I thought he talked about something similar to this and basically said that he had no problem with people using the word Linux in their product names. I guess he changed his mind or I misunderstood.
The problem seems to be that some companies can use the Linux name for bad purposes.  For example, there are some "Linux" magazines out there that are really not Linux magazines but instead are anti-linux propaganda funded by Microsoft.

If you don't protect the "Linux" trademark, then it means that bad people can abuse it and the owner has no way of preventing this.


Hopefully this storm will pass over us because for many months now, the official product name is "DSL" instead of "Damn Small Linux ®"

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