Re: Petition about the Firefox trademark problem
On Fri, 2006-10-13 at 14:08 -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> Firefox is the current front-runner for secure, stable, all-around
> good web-browsers. This is not a judgement of FF, just an
> observation. Mozilla has changed how it handles some of its IP and the
> freedom of that IP (specifically the artwork). Okay, maybe they
> haven't changed it, but they are trying to enforce it. Regardless,
> this less than free IP is not acceptable to Debian. But, Debian wants
> to include FF in its distribution for reasons listed above.
I'm probably less than sufficiently informed so don't scream at me if my
comments are brain-dead :-)
Why don't they just put it in the non-free repositry? To me it would
make far more sense to replace the offending artwork with Debian's own,
and rather work the extra features directly back into the mozilla
project.
While I understand the licencing issue, I don't understand why
opensource proponents always have to resort to some sort of derogatory
name for something. Calling someone a weasel has never been a
compliment, and "ice" never has any positive connotations either. It's
rally childish.
Hans
> So there
> are two alternatives: either Moz relaxes its rules around the
> less-than-free artwork, or Debian packages a more free version of FF
> under a different name. Moz can't really relax those rules as it opens
> a whole can of worms for others to take advantage of their good
> name. I don't blame them. Maybe no-one will take advantage of that but
> maybe someone will. They have to protect their name and
> reputation. They have chosen to do it in a particular way. Its not
> really a bad way, but its not compatible with Debian. So Debian is
> left with no choice but to release a "generic" version of FF under a
> different name.
>
> Frankly its a win-win situation, AFAICT. Deb gets a great browser and
> FF protects their stuff the way they want to. The problem is that now
> Deb won't have a browser called FF. The solution I see is to put
> a Debian patched version of FF in Main and call it Iceweasel and put a
> Moz version of FF in non-free. Done and done. Then the users have choice,
> Moz gets their way, Deb gets their way and we're all happy.
>
> I don't think petitioning Moz will do any good as they've got too much
> at stake. I don't see it as sour grapes on either side either. Both
> parties have principles to stick to and there is a simple solution to
> the problem without anyone having to abandon their principles.
>
> And I don't think its a big deal either. I think a lot of people just
> don't understand (likely me included!).
>
> I'm sure I'm going to regret posting this, but there it is. be gentle.
>
> A
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