To squelch the questions (related to the changing content on www.centos.org), I decided this needs to be published.

The CentOS Team has been contacted by representatives of a Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor's hired legal team regarding the use of said Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor's Trademarks on www.centos.org. (Full Email follows.) While the CentOS team feels we are using the Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor's marks in a fair and legal manner, we have no choice but to eliminate the majority of the Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor's marks that are being used on www.centos.org.

Over the next few days, we will be cleansing the CentOS website of the Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor's marks and/or possible marks. If you encounter any errors please take a moment to point them out via a comment here or catch donavan in #centos-web on irc.freenode.net.

At this point and going forward the CentOS project is not in any jeopardy. We have a strong group of committed developers and are growing like crazy. CentOS 4 is just around the corner; the future is brighter than ever.

A couple of points I need to make. Please DO NOT hassle the upstream vendor or their attorney over this matter. www.centos.org user contributed content in the form of forum posts, news and article comments, wiki content etc. do not fall directly under the control of www.centos.org. So in the normal course of user to user communication, the use of the upstream vendor's marks (to identify their brand) is not prohibited. Obviously if a CentOS team member merely copies existing front page content into a forum post that's going to be a problem.

If you feel the need to express dismay over this manner, go find 10 other sites that are violating the use of the upstream vendor's marks. Post them to the comments here and one of the team members will tabulate the list and forward it to the upstream vendor's legal team as a matter of courtesy.

Thank you,

Donavan and the rest of the CentOS Team


The following was published to a mailing list with public archives. This is the email
http://lists.caosity.org/pipermail/steering-committee/2005-January/000060.html and http://lists.caosity.org/pipermail/steering-committee/attachments/20050128/e237b8d7/attachment.eml is the url of the actual attachment sent to the mailing list.

We represent Red Hat, Inc. ("Red Hat") with respect to its intellectual property matters. As you are aware, our client is the owner of rights for numerous trademarks, including but not limited to its famous RED HAT mark and RHEL (collectively, the "RED HAT marks"). Our client has made extensive use of the RED HAT marks in interstate and international commerce in connection with the advertising, promotion, and sale of its goods and services.

We understand that our client has failed to receive a response from you to its correspondence, including its letter of January 7, 2005, and, therefore has requested that we follow up with you to bring this matter to closure. We understand that you are distributing, on your web site located at http://www.centos.org, CentOS Enterprise class Linux software that was developed using Red Hat's open source software. While Red Hat permits others to redistribute the software that constitutes Red Hat Linux, Red Hat does not authorize any person to use the RED HAT marks in association with such redistribution in any fashion, except by express agreement. In this regard, our client is concerned that your use of the RED HAT marks on your web site in this manner is likely to create confusion, mistake and/or deception among consumers with respect to the source, origin, sponsorship or approval of the products sold under your company name.

While we appreciate that you may have taken some initial steps to disassociate your company and products from Red Hat, the fact remains that the extensive use of our client's RED HAT marks on your web site goes beyond the permitted use of our client's trademarks. Please refer to our client's web site at http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark, and in particular http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark/guidelines/page6.html, for the Red Hat trademark guidelines. Our client also objects to your use of the RED HAT marks as embedded text in your web site metatags. Moreover, our client does not allow others to provide links to our client's web site without permission. Your use of the RED HAT marks while linking to redhat.com suggests that Red Hat somehow sponsors or endorses your company which is false and misleading.

Consequently, our client is concerned that your unauthorized use of its RED HAT marks in this manner will confuse consumers and dilute the distinctive qualities of its marks. To avoid any dilution or consumer confusion, we request that you contact us to confirm that you have removed from your web site all unauthorized uses of the RED HAT marks, as well as all other improper uses of our client's intellectual property, including within your web site metatags.

We trust you will understand our client's interest in protecting its valuable intellectual property and ensuring that consumers are not misled as to the source or sponsorship of goods and services sold and/or distributed under the RED HAT marks. Again, we trust that this issue can be resolved promptly and amicably and appreciate your attention to this matter. We look forward to your reply and request a response no later than February 4, 2005. Thank you.

Sincerely,

(Signed by Red Hat Counsel )