Posted by aiwata55 on August 20, 2010 at 2:35am
Hi all,
I just found that a Japanese company started selling Drupal-based site building service under a different name than Drupal. They call the system "System B", because they concluded the name "Drupal" will not be accepted by Japanese market.
I wonder if this act is acceptable and would like to hear other people's opinions, especially ones from those with legal knowledge.
Comments
Short answer = yes.
GPL code can be modified in almost unlimited ways including names BUT copyright text cannot be removed or changed. They can call it "System B" but they must make sure the Drupal name (and other names if any) is still in the copyright statements where it has always been. They can add their own copyright line above the old one(s) if they want.
What Aveu said
Selling Drupal under a different name is OK iff:
1) It is still distributed under the GPL.
2) It is still clearly labeled as being under the GPL.
3) The original copyright statements (in our case LICENSE.txt, MAINTAINERS.txt, etc.) are retained, or retained and added to.
I'm curious, why would the name "Drupal" not be accepted in the Japanese market? Does it translate into a naughty word in Japanese, as seems to happen to people's names with amusing frequency? :-)