On Monday, January 16, 2017 1:23:59 PM EST Rich Freeman wrote:
>
> > SPI does not want property just money. They do not own the projects or
> > anything of the sort. SPI handles the money, that is it!
> 
> Uh, you obviously didn't read the link I posted earlier:
> https://www.debian.org/trademark
> 
> In particular:
> As a part of this process, the Debian trademark is a registered United
> States trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc., managed by
> the Debian project.

This explains it in more detail. Debian likely has a special relationship as 
the SPI was founded by Debian developers. Seems the SPI owns Debian, not just 
Trademark but Copyright as well.

"Software in the Public Interest, Inc. is a tax-exempt non-profit corporation 
based in the United States of America, founded by Debian people in 1997 to 
help free software/hardware organisations."
https://www.debian.org/donations

-- 
William L. Thomson Jr.