Trademarks

The AGPLv3 gives you broad rights over the code. This policy covers the names and marks, which a software licence deliberately does not grant.

The rule in one line: say what is true. If your thing is built on Kreds, say so. If it is not the official Kreds service, do not let anyone believe it is.

What this covers

• The name Kreds
• The currency name KRED
• Kreds Network, Official Kreds, Kreds Cloud
• The Kreds logo and official branding
• Verification badges such as Kreds Network Verified

What you can do without asking

Nominative use, meaning using the name to accurately describe a relationship:

Built with Kreds
Compatible with Kreds
Powered by Kreds
Forked from Kreds
A Kreds instance operated by Acme
Acme's leaderboard, running on Kreds

You can also:

• run a public Kreds instance and say it runs Kreds
• write about Kreds, review it, criticise it, teach it
• keep the name in your fork's git history, licence headers and attribution
• use the name in a conference talk, blog post or comparison table
• charge money for any of the above

None of that needs permission. Describing what your software is made of is not trademark infringement, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

What needs permission

Using the marks in a way that implies your service is ours, or is endorsed, certified or operated by us:

Official Kreds
Kreds Network            (for a service that is not on the Official Network)
Kreds Cloud
Kreds Network Verified   (as a badge you award yourself)
kreds-<something>.com    (as the primary identity of a competing hosted service)

Also: the Kreds logo as your product's logo, and app store listings named "Kreds" for something that is not this project.

Forks

Fork freely. That is what the licence is for.

Give the fork its own name and its own identity. "Acme Points, forked from Kreds" is fine and accurate. "Kreds by Acme" is not, because a reader cannot tell whether they are looking at the original.

Keep the attribution and the licence headers. Drop the logo.

The Network badge

Kreds Network Verified means an instance is registered with, and validated by, the Official Kreds Network. It is the one claim in this document that is a statement of fact about infrastructure rather than about branding.

Do not display it unless the Network issued it to you. A verification badge anybody can print is worth nothing to everybody.

Why this is separate from the licence

Trademark rules do not belong inside a software licence. Adding restrictions to AGPLv3 would produce a licence that is no longer AGPLv3, which would make the open-source claim false and defeat the point of relicensing in the first place.

So the code is genuinely AGPLv3, with no extra conditions, and the marks are governed here.

If in doubt

Ask: [email protected]. We would much rather have a two-message conversation than send a lawyer's letter to somebody who was trying to do the right thing.

Kreds and KRED are trademarks of ZitDevs.