The Camel has become a nearly ubiquitous symbol for Perl. This usage was started by the cover design of "Programming Perl" (Larry Wall, et al, O'Reilly and Associates). It has been carried much further, however, by volunteer efforts. For instance, the current MacPerl distribution and a variety of Perl-related web pages contain images based on a cartoon camel.

Consequently, you may wonder why the banner we are promoting (indeed, the entire suite of MacPerl Pages) is entirely devoid of camels. Well, the problem is that O'Reilly has asserted their right to regulate the use of a Camel in conjunction with Perl:

The use of a camel image in conjunction with Perl is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

This may or may not be a valid legal position, but that is rather beside the point. The MacPerl Pages don't need the camel image, and we all have better things to do than argue about logos, so we have opted to use the current (modified pearl) image instead.

O'Reilly is still working out details on licensing terms for use of the camel as a Perl icon. Should they publish a set of terms that do not get in our way, we may consider switching to a Camel-based logo. Stay tuned...

Sincerely yours, The Management