[steering-discuss] Vendor string usage in third-party packages of LibreOffice

Hello,

I'm a volunteer about to add some packaging scripts for LibreOffice in
pkgsrc [1], and as such, I asked on the IRC developer's channel if there
was a problem if I used "The Document Foundation" as a vendor string for
the resulting packages.

This is an extract of the exchanges I had on this channel:

  11:30 < ftigeot> is there a policy on branding / the --with-vendor option ?
  11:33 < ftigeot> would there be a problem if I use "The Document Foundation"
  in my packages ?

  11:39  * ftigeot has just found
  http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/TradeMark_Policy
  11:40 < ftigeot> I will use The Document Foundation as vendor string

  11:40 <@mmeeks> ftigeot: ho hum; if you are not the document foundation -
  don't do that.
  11:40 <@mmeeks> ftigeot: I think that is the request of the branding
  guidelines.
  11:40 <@mmeeks> ftigeot: TDF is only for TDF produced builds; LibreOffice is
  for everyone.

  11:46 < ftigeot> mmeeks: the webpage says "You may use the Marks without prior
  written permission (subject to the following terms):
  11:46 < ftigeot> 1. To refer to the LibreOffice software in substantially
  unmodified form. "
  11:47 < ftigeot> with a definition of "substantially unmodified" which says
  the way I intend to package it is basically okay

This is an extract of the TradeMark_Policy web page:

  You may use the Marks without prior written permission (subject to the
  following terms):

  1. To refer to the LibreOffice software in substantially unmodified form.

  "Substantially unmodified" means built from the source code provided by TDF,
  possibly with minor modifications including but not limited to: the enabling
  or disabling of certain features by default, translations into other
  languages, changes required for compatibility with a particular operating
  system distribution, the inclusion of bug-fix patches, or the bundling of
  additional fonts, templates, artwork and extensions). 

The packaging scripts I am creating use the unmodified source code of
LibreOffice and only change the default configuration options.

According to the previously mentionned web page, the usage of
"The Document Foundation" trademark is permitted in this case.

According to Michael Meeks, it was not the intent of the Foundation
to allow the usage of its brand in that case.

Could this point be clarified ? If the usage of "The Document Foundation"
trademark is not permitted for creating third-party packages, the information
on the TradeMark_Policy webpage are contradictory.


Thanks in advance for your answers


[1] pkgsrc - http://www.pkgsrc.org/ - is a framework for building and
packaging third-party software. It was originally created for NetBSD but
is now supported on many systems, including Linux, MacOS X and Microsoft
Windows (Interix)

-- 
Francois Tigeot

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