Re: Rust trademark policy

[Bone Baboon <bone.baboon@disroot.org>]

Walter Landry writes:

> Bone Baboon writes:
>> * The "Uses that require explicit approval" section says "Distributing a
>>   modified version of the Rust programming language or the Cargo package
>>   manager and calling it Rust or Cargo requires explicit, written
>>   permission from the Rust core team.".  This appears to interfere with
>>   "The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others
>>   (freedom 3).". 
>
> This is more or less the same exact problem that caused Debian to rename
> Firefox to Iceweasel.  Eventually, Debian convinced Mozilla to allow
> Debian to use Firefox to refer to the modified versions that Debian
> distributes.
>
>   https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=815006

Thank you for sharing that link.

> Ideally, Debian would get a similar dispensation for Rust.

A better outcome than getting as Debian specific dispensation would be
for the Rust trademark policy to be modified to resolve this issue or to
rename Rust and Cargo when distributing copies or modified versions.

Getting a Debian specific dispensation for Rust would not appear to meet
The Debian Free Software Guidelines specifically 8 License Must Not Be
Specific to Debian.

The Debian Free Software Guidelines section 8 License Must Not Be
Specific to Debian:

```
The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's
being part of a Debian system. If the program is extracted from Debian
and used or distributed without Debian but otherwise within the terms of
the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed
should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction
with the Debian system.
```

In <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=815006>:

```
Mozilla recognizes that patches applied to Iceweasel/Firefox don't
impact the quality of the product.
Patches which should be reported upstream to improve the product always
have been forward upstream by the Debian packagers. Mozilla agrees about
specific patches to facilitate the support of Iceweasel on architecture
supported by Debian or Debian-specific patches.

More generally, Mozilla trusts the Debian packagers to use their best
judgment to achieve the same quality as the official Firefox binaries.

In case of derivatives of Debian, Firefox branding can be used as long
as the patches applied are in the same category as described above.
Ubuntu having a different packaging, this does not apply to that
distribution.
```

This appears to be in contradiction to "8 License Must Not Be Specific
to Debian".  The key issue is that the Rust trademark policy is trying
to add further distribution restrictions on copies and modified version
that the license does not have.  In this way the trademark is acting
like additional terms to the license with the disadvantage of not being
well documented and being poorly understood as they have not been
reviewed by the Free Software Foundation or the Open Source Initiative.