Adam Williamson <awilliam <at> redhat.com> writes:
It's really pretty simple: we can only define goals and values and blahblah for 'the Fedora project' as long as we actually retain control over 'the Fedora project' (that's we as in the Fedora community, not Red Hat, BTW) and we can only do that if we control the name 'Fedora'. If anyone can make anything and call it 'Fedora', how are people to know what comes from the Fedora project and is backed by its values, and what doesn't?
Well, I suppose digital signatures would make this possible - but given that most people don't know how to use them, and the availability of an infinite number of free names to choose from, I think trademark restrictions are reasonable.