[Linux-aus] Tux in SA Lotteries

[Jon 'maddog' Hall]

The term "Linux" has been trademarked in several countries, and is now
under the jurisdiction of the Linux Foundation representing Linus
Torvalds.  Linus' expressed desires is that anyone can use the term
"Linux" for any purpose.  Therefore the use of the term "Linux" for a
lottery would be fine.

Tux was designed by Larry Ewing, and his copyright allows it to be used
for any purpose as long as the attribution to Larry and the GIMP is
given (which in this case it does not seem to have been given).

Trademarking Tux has its own issues, since in many countries a trademark
has to be associated with a particular product or brand.  Tux's
"product" is a little ill defined for a trademark board, IMHO.  It was
hard enough to get "Linux" trademarked.

Tux has appeared before on plumbing trucks, shipping companies, and
various other places.  It seems that graphic artists also look for
things that are "easy to do", and finding a penguin for a "cool game"
probably grabbed the first good-looking penguin they found.

I think it is a great idea having Tux on the game cards, particularly
since at least two lottery systems I know use Linux to drive them.  I
would vote to give all the people who "scratch and lose" a free license
to use Linux.

maddog