[directory-discuss] Mozilla's trademark policy: Still a problem

[David Hedlund]

Why not recommend Mozilla branded software like Firefox, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey? As explained in our Free Software Definition, all four freedoms must be available on both a commercial and non-commercial basis. Mozilla's trademark policy serves to limit Freedom 2 to gratis distribution only, making the software nonfree.

From https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/foundation/trademarks/policy/

Modifications

If you're taking full advantage of the open-source nature of Mozilla's products and making significant functional changes, you may not redistribute the fruits of your labor under any Mozilla trademark, without Mozilla's prior written consent. For example, if the product you've modified is Firefox, you may not use Mozilla or Firefox, in whole or in part, in its name. Also, it would be inappropriate for you to say "based on Mozilla Firefox". Instead, in the interest of complete accuracy, you could describe your executables as "based on Mozilla technology", or "incorporating Mozilla source code." In addition, you may want to read the discussion on the "Powered by Mozilla" logo.

In addition, if you compile a modified version, as discussed above, with branding enabled (the default in our source code is branding disabled), you will require Mozilla's prior written permission. If it's not the unmodified installer package from www.mozilla.org, and you want to use our trademark(s), our review and approval of your modifications is required. You also must change the name of the executable so as to reduce the chance that a user of the modified software will be misled into believing it to be a native Mozilla product.

Again, any modification to the Mozilla product, including adding to, modifying in any way, or deleting content from the files included with an installer, file location changes, added code, modification of any source files including additions and deletions, etc., will require our permission if you want to use the Mozilla Marks. If you have any doubt, just ask us at address@hidden.

Debian has permission to redistribute modified copies of Firefox with the Firefox branding, Parabola GNU/Linux-libre (and every other distro) does not. These Parabola packages are still maintained as a result:

iceape: https://www.parabola.nu/packages/?sort=&q=Iceape&maintainer=&flagged=

icedove: https://www.parabola.nu/packages/?sort=&q=icedove&maintainer=&flagged=

icecat: https://www.parabola.nu/packages/?sort=&q=icecat&maintainer=&flagged=

iceweasel: https://www.parabola.nu/packages/?sort=&q=iceweasel&maintainer=&flagged=