44 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
44 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
<!--
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SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later AND LicenseRef-Proprietary-Trademark
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SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2025 ai-ad4 and the FreePDFEditor contributors
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-->
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# Trademark policy
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The project name **"FreePDFEditor"**, the wordmark, and the logo are *not*
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covered by the GPL-3.0-or-later license that applies to the source code. They
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are held separately by the project for the reasons set out in the engineering
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plan §13.4.
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## Why
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The GPL guarantees the freedom to fork, modify, and redistribute the code. It
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does not — and cannot — guarantee the freedom to use the project's name or
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logo to identify a modified version. Holding the trademark separately lets
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the project:
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* prevent forks from shipping malware or spyware under the FreePDFEditor
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name;
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* prevent confusion about which build is the project's official release;
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* allow legitimate community distributions (e.g. Linux distro packages) to
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use the name, with permission that is liberal but not automatic.
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## Policy
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1. **Official builds** distributed from `gitea.lm.je/ai-ad4/freepdfeditor` or
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the project's designated download locations may use the name and logo
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without further permission.
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2. **Unmodified redistributions** (verbatim tarball, distro packaging of the
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official source at an official tag) may use the name, with attribution.
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3. **Modified versions** — forks, patched builds, downstream rebuilds with
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non-trivial changes — may not use the FreePDFEditor name or logo to
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identify or endorse the product without separate written permission.
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Choose a different name; you may note that it is "based on FreePDFEditor"
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and link to the upstream.
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4. **The logo** is not free for generic use. It identifies this project's
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builds specifically.
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## Trademark vs. license
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This policy does not restrict the rights granted by GPL-3.0-or-later to the
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source code. It restricts only the use of the trademarks. If in doubt, ask
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at `trademark@freepdfeditor.org` before publishing. |