Third-party usage of the Depot

1

Hello, all. I had a rather quick query, and though I really didn’t want to ask at first and disrupt the forum, I am rather confused at how to approach this.

My fledgling project Poem was at first meant to be a fork, but its focus has completely changed. The classic image/edition will be a distribution, as I believe it would be easier for me to simply merge my changes and follow more recent builds, rather than trying to catch up to everything.

But the confusion is in the Distribution Guidelines, which mention that the title, etc. of Haiku cannot be used anywhere. As most Haiku software now is being packaged around the Depot, if I broke off A4.1, I would need the Depot as a component. The problem is that HaikuDepot uses the Haiku name inside the application (which is simply a matter of modding its code and jam rules)… but the problem is that it doesn’t merely end there. Perhaps I am overthinking this whole situation, but I have been under the assumption the use of the application itself is property of Haiku and not just the title, because it exists an app store/service in its own way. This leads me to three questions if I choose to follow a new path for any new classic releases, which are simply:

  1. Can I (or anyone else) legally even include the Depot per the guidelines?
  2. If yes to #1, then does the application need renamed to comply with guidelines?
  3. And if yes to #1 and #2, then do I need to notify the user about this somewhere in the application?

It just seems the Guidelines were written for a time before the Depot became a reality. Again, I’m truly sorry to disturb the forum with this as it concerns a third-party project, but I thought it would be better to ask this rather than risk going about it the wrong way.

Please reply if you know of the particulars for this; if not, I’ll have to exclude it from any future classic images to keep legal. Thank you everyone.

2

Hi,

The Haiku name is trademarked and distributions aren't allowed to use it without permission from Haiku, inc. To ease this, we provide a "distro compatibility" mode where the "Haiku" name is removed. But you are right, we did not adjust HaikuDepot to follow this.

So, you can use the app itself (it's open source code under the MIT license), but you will have to rename it. No further notice to users is required.

A patch to make the Jamfiles follow the "distro compatibility" setting and build the app under a different name (maybe just "Depot"?) would be much appreciated.

3

Okay. Thank you very much for the reply; I will see about following this in post-a4 builds, then.

4

apgreimann:

Do you have a website for this forK?

Sounds interesting … (not that the original spork isn’t :slight_smile:

5

Thanks for the interest. To answer both your questions, I guess I have a bit of explaining to do here, if, hopefully, the Haiku team is okay with me doing so like this. In short, there is no fork (anymore). The original 1.0 was pushed far too quickly, and wasn’t truly ready, to the point I did not like it myself – so much so, when Senryu went open, I thought of quitting, until I realized that was no way to leave it. It’s all on the site’s blog, if you care to read it all. So, I apologize over any confusion… and would kindly ask to forget about the early days of it.

With the rebirth of Poem, the project will be completely different, changing to a Gnu/Linux system as the primary release and focus, with a classic image meant to run inside. That classic image will be a Haiku distribution – not a fork, which means it will be a lot closer to looking like its parent Haiku. Right now, I am actively trying to merge my current changes in the code, etc. with a stable nightly. While classic (nicknamed Soliloquy after a poem type + solo) can boot standalone, it is mainly going to be relegated to being a legacy component. This major change was done so I can focus on new features and apps over lower level changes that would stall the project, and also so Poem is its own ‘thing’ that better fits my vision, rather than accidentally competing with Haiku. Overall, I believe these shifts/changes were the right choice.

With all that said, an alpha is scheduled to be out really soon. But please be aware now that the alpha will still use R1-a4.1 for classic; the other experimental image based on a more recent build is not really to where I want it yet. Part of this includes the whole (former) question of putting the Depot in it, and I am very grateful to PulkoMandy for his answer.

And, finally, as far as the website, it is still the same: http://www.poem-os.com . Please note that because of the project reboot, a lot of it is still being renovated/is blank at the moment. I hope this clears up everything to anyone tracking it, and again, thank you for your interest in it!

6

@agreimann:

I went to the poem site, to have a look. Nice blog! I tried to post a comment, but I (like many people these days) am hesitant to use an important login on every site I come across. Maybe you could allow anonymous logins or a register page? I doubt you’d get much spam on such a niche site.

Finally, I get the “poem” - i.e. haiku, etc. I must be dense as a brick this morning!

7

Please note: For anyone wondering if I still plan to use the Depot anywhere, I have officially quit the Poem project – so my original concerns about it which were discussed earlier in this thread are null. I’m merely mentioning this for future readers who might wonder what ever became of this discussion. Thanks, all.