Debian, CentOS, RHEL source code demise now linked, accelerated after invalid trademark judgment
February 26, 2025
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
When IBM Red Hat stopped releasing source code for RHEL, people expressed relief that they have an alternative in Debian. Not so.
There is one sentence in the invalid trademark judgment that dramatically heightens the risk of Debian's takeover and demise.
Remember, the Swiss Intellectual Property Office has told us that the judgment is not actually valid.
Nonetheless, the rogue Debianists continue to boast about it. It doesn't contain any finding of wrongdoing. Rather, the most significant thing is this line:
la marque internationale « Debian » qui est notoire dans le domaine informatique au niveau mondial au sens de l'art. 6bis de la Convention de Paris
In trademark law, the definition of a "well known" mark is actually a very high hurdle to achieve. There have been forty similar cases at the Swiss Intellectual Property Office and in every case they rejected the claim that a mark had reached the "well known" status.
Nonetheless, we now see that a judge in a civil tribunal has written that the trademark could be "well known", like Coca-Cola or Ferrari.
Having such an assertion in a legal document, even if it is wrong, inevitably increases the book value of the trademark as a paper asset.
This, in turn, increases the value of both Debian and SPI for a hostile takeover.
Who could make a hostile takeover and how would they do it?
Well, we can already see that IBM has acquired Red Hat and that gives them control over some of my fellow Debian Developers.
Other companies known to control Debian Developers through employment arrangements are Google and Ubuntu.
Microsoft has begun employing some Debian Developers, Microsoft contributed multiple documents to the trademark case and Techrights has recently written in some detail about how Microsoft has taken over OSI, which was a spin-off from Debian.
All these companies, IBM Red Hat, Google, Ubuntu and Microsoft have a foot on the ladder.
One possibility is that Mark Shuttleworth decides to sell Ubuntu. For IBM in particular, the purchase of Ubuntu would be an indirect way of purchasing Debian. By combining the Debian Developers affiliated with both Red Hat and Canonical, they may get close to outright control of Debian and/or SPI.
Remember when they helped a whole bunch of Debian Developers to get shares in Red Hat at the beginning? How many of these people would also fall into line as part of an IBM Red Hat takeover of Debian?
Subject: RedHat Surprise Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 00:09:50 -0500 (EST) From: Matthew R. Pavlovich <mpav@purdue.edu> To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org, debian-private@lists.debian.org
In light of RedHat's recent offer to many debian developers, I want to make a suggestion to those who do not accept RedHat's method of making the offer. Do not send back a nasty e-mail message cursing them for spamming. If you feel obligated to tell them your opinion, please consider using your non-debian e-mail address. It is very easy for people to mistaken the opinion of one for the opinion of the whole. EVERY e-mail message you send with a debian.org e-mail address reflects Debian as an organization. Redhat did not have to include anyone in their offer. This is a very considerate and thoughtful gesture on their part. Redhat is good for Linux as a whole. We may have some differences, but IMO they should not be viewed as our enemy. They are going to be investing a lot of money into Linux development, which means good paying jobs for open source developers. IF YOU READ ONE SECTION, READ THIS: ------- I am not saying anyone is wrong for having an opinion or that they should not express it, the focus of my point is to stress taking into account the fact that individual opinions are taken as opinions of the entire organization.
Matthew R. Pavlovich
With majority or outright control they could simply kill Debian, just like they killed CentOS and the RHEL source code.
To ordinary people on the street, it may seem stupid to suggest that IBM would pay a sum of up to a billion dollars to buy Ubuntu only so they could kill off competition from both Debian and Ubuntu in one go. Nonetheless, this may be a small price for IBM to pay to achieve years of monopoly in the future.
Its worth remembering how the Holocaust started on the Kristallnacht, 9 November 1938. The attack on the press started the day before, 8 November 1938, to pave the way for everything else. We've seen the same thing in the censorship of the open source software environment. Over $120,000 spent on legal fees that simultaneously censors some web sites and increases the book value of the trademark registration.
Debian people who accepted the strategies from lawyerists have shot themselves in the foot. They were fooled by the share offer in 1999 and they've been fooled again.
The recent vote to allow binary firmware in Debian was the thin end of the wedge. Voting was an opportunity for these companies to explore how much control they already have and see if any credible resistance remains.
Why would these companies contribute so much money to the legal vendetta which pushes up the future acquisition cost of the organization? Maybe they already have all their pawns in place to complete the takeover. █
Please see the chronological history of how the Debian harassment and abuse culture evolved.