[Tuxpaint-devel] [fwd] Tux Paint on ebay...

[Bill K. <nb...@so...>]

Someone wrote in with the following:

> Hello, I just found this on ebay... 
> 
> I know Tux Paint is free software / open source but someone (Limited
> Educational Paint) seems to be making a buck or 2 out of it. No idea
> if its legit or not but I wanted to point it out, just in case.
> 
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51347&item=7149627504&rd=1
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51347&item=7150089436&rd=1
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51347&item=7150120237&rd=1
> 

Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, even with the silly name change they've
done to the software.  HOWEVER, the person reporting this to me followed up
with:

> Check the copyright notice at the botton of those pages:
>     Copyright (C) 2004 Limitedsoft Team
>     Copyright (C) 2004 Limitedsoft Educational 4 Kids
>     All Rights Reserved!

So I've just wrote the following in to eBay's Customer Support
(via their "Verified RIghts Owner (VeRO)" page):


  Hello, I'm creator of a software product called "Tux Paint" which is
  released under the GNU General Public License.  I, and a collection of
  other developers, share copyright on the product.

  It has come to my attention that a company using a number of eBay
  seller accounts ("ameri_vendor2005" and "coollam2004"; perhaps others)
  is selling a copy of this software on eBay.  While this would normally
  not be a problem (the GPL license allows redistribution, even for
  profit), I am concerned with the following text shown on the items in
  the eBay auction:

    Copyright (C) 2004 Limitedsoft Team
    Copyright (C) 2004 Limitedsoft Educational 4 Kids
    All Rights Reserved!

  In other words, they're implying that THEY own the copyright to the
  software, which they do not.  The full permissions granted to them as
  a user or distributor is clearly included in the software, and can be
  read online here, if you're interested (again, it's simply the GNU GPL
  license):
  http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/docs/COPYING.txt

  Can you please ask them to stop asserting copyright on our software?
  Thank you!



Anyone have any other comments/ideas regarding this?  (The same company/sellers
appear to also be selling altered versions of OpenOffice.org and Linux
distributions, and probably a lot more software.)


Also, do people think it's worth mentioning this situation on the Tux Paint
website, to prevent any confusion for people who might somehow stumble
on the eBay items and then hit our website (or vice-versa)???

Thanks!

-- 
-bill!
bi...@ne...      Tonight's Forecast: Dark. Continued darkness
http://newbreedsoftware.com/   until widely scattered light in the morning.