Re: Proposed vote on issue of the day: trademarks and free software
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Wouter Verhelst <wouter@debian.org> wrote: [...]
> For those of you who're not aware: the Mozilla Foundation is now forcing
> people who want to use their firefox trademark to display an EULA to
> their users on first run of the software. It does not currently require
> them to accept to it, so they can easily bypass the license by just
> ignoring it.
While they may have changed their position, I don't think it changes
the basic problem with Firefox failing to be Free Software due to
trademarks. The statement only mentions the EULA as an example of the
problem, not as the basic problem.
I also note that FSF's page at http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/
says Mozilla's Firefox build includes non-free software.
In short, I don't care whether someone breaks the DFSG with a
copyright licence or a trademark licence or a death threat or whatever
other tool. It's about freedom, not a few laws.
So, I second issuing this statement:-
> ===Begin resolution text===
> The Debian Project has been watching the case around the Mozilla
> Project's EULA requirement for people wishing to use their trademarks
> from a distance. This is an issue that has been brewing for a few years
> now; and even though we've chosen not to use the Firefox, Thunderbird,
> Mozilla, and Seamonkey trademarks, we still feel that we ought to make
> our position on this important issue clear.
>
> The Free Software community as a whole is based around the notion that
> one should be allowed to modify software when they feel it necessary;
> and that the right to such modification and subsequent redistribution is
> a basic right to users that should not be taken away.
>
> By using trademark law to enforce certain requirements that we do not
> usually consider to be characteristic of Free Software, such as a
> requirement for patch review and a requirement to include a particular
> end-user license, the Debian Project feels that the Mozilla Foundation
> has now turned the trademarked version of their Free Software into
> software that is no longer free.
> ===End resolution text===
Regards,
- --
MJ Ray (slef)
Webmaster for hire, statistician and online shop builder for a small
worker cooperative http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ http://mjr.towers.org.uk/
(Notice http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html) tel:+44-844-4437-237
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