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Re: Debian and Mozilla Trademarks



Maybe I should know much about buld_deb packaging, but from what I can read from mozilla [0], dealing with logos and trademark are allowed if there is no change in the code.
Building a .deb is a change of the code, or is just an adaptation best fitable for a different platform?
In the former case debian could not violate the mozilla logos and trademark policies.
In the letter if the redistribution is with no changes, then everybody are allowed to deal with.

Waht in any case i find problematic, is that the mozilla pubblic license-sections trademark (I think we should start thinking as just one license) is probably not dfsg free becouse of what requires in dealing with logos and trademarks [1]




[0] http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/licensing.html
[1] http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/licensing.html on the middle of the page



Tom




--- "Paul C. Bryan" <email@pbryan.net> wrote:
Dear Debian Legal Gurus:

In February 2004, the issue was raised [1] on the debian-devel mailing list 
regarding the trademark issues surrounding the Mozilla Firefox browser 
(which, in actual fact, is not limited to just Firefox). A brief flury of 
messages followed, which didn't seem to actually address the issue that was 
originally raised.

The Mozilla Organization tightly restricts the use of the Mozilla name and 
logos. My non-legal interpretation of their licensing page [2] is that it 
requires written permission to use Mozilla trademarks for any modified 
versions of their software. I believe all of the Mozilla packages in Debian 
would fall under this restriction.

I've searched the mailing lists for any other references to this issue, but 
haven't found any further discussions.

Technically, Debian is probably already using Mozilla trademarks. This is a 
murky area, in which copyright meets trademark, because most of these usages 
appear to be included with DFSG-free licensed source code. When Mozilla.org 
releases source code under open-source licenses, which includes trademarks 
it purports to restrict the use of, which takes precidence?

Has anyone at Debian sought permission from the Mozilla Organization to use 
the Mozilla trademarks in its packages? In your legal opinions, would it 
make a substantive difference?

Even if Debian had permission to use Mozilla trademarks in its packages, I 
doubt that the original issue of using the Mozilla Firefox icon could be 
adequately addressed. The icon itself would not be DFSG-free, therefore not 
suitable for inclusion in the Debian distribution.

Are there any other examples of restrictions placed on open-source licenses 
that Debian has had to deal with in the past? When a package is resricted by 
trademark usage, does Debian have a policy to effectively deal with it?

[1] http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/02/msg01877.html

[2] http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/licensing.html

Yours truly,

Paul C. Bryan
email@pbryan.net


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