Re: Ongoing Firefox (and Thunderbird) Trademark problems
El Martes 14 Junio 2005 18:54, Humberto Massa Guimarães escribió:
> > Firefox is free software, and DFSG-compliant: "The license may
> > require derived works to carry a different name or version number
> > from the original software." (Even if it is "a compromise").
>
> But is non-rebranded Firefox *really* distributable by us under
> GPL#6, "no further restrictions"? It seems to me that if our users
> can't customize and compile and distribute Firefox under the terms
> of the GPL, we are passing along another restriction over those in
> the GPL.
Yes, they can customize and compile and distribute Firefox, but they need to
pay attention to the trademark issues, as well as patent issues and any other
law that may apply in their country.
> > I think everything is clear enough. And I think it is quite
> > reasonable that an upstream author asks for a name change for a
> > modified version. Even for security fixes. There is lots of
> > modified versions of programs out there and the upstreams authors
> > are always suffering bug reports that doesn't concern the original
> > version.
>
> So, in this paragraph you are basically stating that we *should*
> rename firefox to save them from such burden.
No, I think we should NOT rename Firefox to save our *direct* users from such
burden. A lot of people would get greatly confused with a different name for
Firefox, even if you don't think so.
*Indirect* users such as derived distributions should check the licenses and
other trademark or patent issues before start distributing anything. It's
their task to check it. We can help them if we create Debian packages which
are easy to rename, but we shouldn't confuse the rest of the users just to
make this task easier to derived distributions.
> > And if you finally plan to rename Firefox, you should start
> > renaming PHP, unless I missed something...
>
> If the same restriction applies to PHP, I'm all for it.
Oh yes, it would be funny. "I've programmed a webpage in PZP but it doesn't
render correctly in Littlefox".
When should we start the project "Debian-rest of the world branding
reference"?
Regards,
César
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