Re: [directory-discuss] [gnu.org #1430355] DRM free version of Firefox is available at Moz Directory

[John Scott]

I thought I sent this already, my apologies if you receive it twice - do posts 
need approval?

On Wednesday, September 11, 2019 7:05:08 AM EDT Therese Godefroy via RT wrote:
> Le Mer 11 Sep 2019 05:07:08, address@hidden a écrit :
> > "Mozilla branded programs such as Firefox and Thunderbird are not free
> > software unless their names are changed. This is due to Mozilla's
> > trademark policy that forbids selling copies of unmodified
> > executables." - https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Collection:GNU/Linux
> 
> I thought this policy had changed. If not, how can Debian 10
> provide Firefox ESR and Thunderbird in its main repo?

I don't know about a clause forbidding selling, but the issue with Debian was 
that they were applying their own patches to Firefox. Because the trademark 
policy was vague on what changes were substantial enough to require removing 
the trademark, they did so out of caution.

Mozilla said that Debian's changes weren't substantial enough for that to be 
an issue [1] and they don't change the user experience. In 2016, they hadn't 
yet amended the trademark policy to specify what changes would be considered 
"substantial," but expressed that they were working on it [2]. I'm not sure if 
they did complete that.

If you personally made any substantial changes to Debian's source, you'd still 
be responsible for removing the trademarks and you wouldn't have freedom to 
redistribute otherwise. At least, that's my interpretation.

[1] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=815006#55
[2] https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=815006#70

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