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Debian–Mozilla trademark dispute

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"Iceweasel" redirects here. For the GNU browser formerly known as IceWeasel, see GNU IceCat.
Iceweasel's official logo

In 2004, a naming and use of trademark issue developed when Mike Connor[1], representing the Mozilla Corporation, requested that the Debian Project comply with Mozilla standards for use of the Thunderbird trademark when redistributing the Thunderbird software.[2] At issue were modifications not approved by the Mozilla Foundation, when the name for the software remained the same.

The Debian Project then in 2006 rebranded the Mozilla Firefox program,[3] and other software released by Mozilla, so that Debian could continue to distribute the software with modifications permitted, without being bound by the use of trademark requirements that the Mozilla Foundation had required. The new names established by Debian were Iceweasel for Mozilla Firefox, Icedove for Mozilla Thunderbird, and Iceape for SeaMonkey. These changes were implemented in the subsequent version of Debian (Etch). In July 2007, Iceowl, a rebranded version of Mozilla Sunbird, was added to the unstable branch of Debian.[4]

In September 2008, the Mozilla Corporation requested Canonical to present a EULA - an End User License Agreement - at the first run of Firefox. [5] The request, as had happened with Debian, was made very close to the October release date on Ubuntu Intrepid. [6]

On September 15, 2008, Mozilla's CEO responded to the subsequent pushback[1] and Mozilla's General Counsel offered a modified agreement. It included changes to the EULA language, clarification of Mozilla's desire to among other things get users to agree to terms of use if they use Mozilla's anti-malware and anti-phishing services, and elimination of the requirement to click-through. Commentators continued to question the need for any "agreement" by users to use Firefox.[2].

History

Origins of the issue and of the Iceweasel name

Mozilla Corporation enforces trademarks and claims the right to deny the use of the name “Firefox” and other trademarks to unofficial builds.[7] Unless distributions use the binaries supplied by Mozilla or else have special permission, they must compile the Firefox source with an option enabled which gives Firefox the codename of the release version of Firefox on which it is based, and which does not use the official logo or other artwork.[7] The Debian Free Software Guidelines are used by the Debian project to determine whether a license is a free license, which in turn is used to determine whether something can be included in Debian. As the logo does not meet these requirements, it could not be used by software which was to be included in Debian. This effect of the Mozilla trademark policy led to a long debate within the Debian Project in 2004 and 2005. During this debate, the name “Iceweasel” was coined to refer to rebranded versions of Firefox. The first known use of the name in this context is by Nathanael Nerode[8], in reply to Eric Dorland's suggestion of “Icerabbit”.[9] It was intended as a parody of “Firefox”.[10] “Iceweasel” was subsequently used as the example name for a rebranded Firefox in the Mozilla Trademark Policy[7], and became the most commonly used name for a hypothetical rebranded version of Firefox. By January 1, 2005, rebranding was being referred to as the “Iceweasel route”.[11]

Debian was initially given permission to use the trademarks, and adopted the Firefox name.[12] However, because the artwork in Firefox has a proprietary copyright license which is not compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines, the substituted logo had to remain.[13]

Rebranding

According to packages.qa.debian.org, Iceweasel, Icedove and Iceape were first accepted into the Debian project's unstable repository on November 20, 2006, on October 14, 2006, and on December 1, 2006, respectively. Icedove migrated to Etch and Thunderbird was removed on November 11, 2006. Iceape migrated to Etch on January 11, 2007, (the old Mozilla suite having previously been removed on October 6, 2006). Iceweasel migrated (and Firefox removed) on January 18, 2007. Debian's first stable release to include Iceweasel, Icedove, and Iceape was Debian 4.0 (Etch), released April 8, 2007. Soon after the renaming Debian also replaced Mozilla's unbranded logos with new logos designed to fit with the new names.

GNU IceWeasel release

Main article: GNU IceCat

In August 2005,[14] the Gnuzilla project adopted the IceWeasel name for a browser based on Firefox using free artwork.[14] The first Gnuzilla IceWeasel release was based on Firefox 1.5.0.4.[15] GNU IceWeasel was renamed to GNU IceCat in September 2007.

Trademark agreement revocation

In February 2006, Mike Connor, representing the Mozilla Corporation, wrote to the Debian bugtracker and informed the project that Mozilla did not consider the way in which Debian was using the Firefox name to be acceptable.[16] Connor confirmed that the Mozilla Corporation was revoking the previous agreement which allowed Debian to use the Firefox name. Further messages from Mike Connor clarified Mozilla's current policies: "Yes, if you are shipping a browser called Firefox, we should be signing off on every deviation from what we ship."; and "If you are going to use the Firefox name, you must also use the rest of the branding."

Debian releases are frozen on a long-term basis and software in the frozen stable releases is patched later for any newly-discovered security issues. Under the revised guidelines, in order to use the Firefox name, approval from the Mozilla Corporation would have been required for all security patches, but the Debian project believes it has no viable way to surrender its release policies to an external corporation in that manner. Also, the Firefox logo's copyright license did not conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, so Debian could not use the Firefox name under Mozilla Corporation's revised guidelines.

The "Iceweasel" name was revived in the Debian community as a possible name to give the rebranded version of Firefox. The Iceweasel used in Etch is not the GNU application of the same name but a rebranded Firefox created by the Debian project. The Debian maintainer has stated that he will "get in touch with them to see what we can do together".[17] Since September 23, 2007, the GNU fork of Firefox is called IceCat. Because exactly the same problems required that Debian rename Mozilla Thunderbird and SeaMonkey, the names Icedove and Iceape were coined as replacements.

Subsequent Ice names and products

Iceweasel
Developer(s)Debian Project
Operating systemLinux, GNU and variants
Typeweb browser
LicenseMPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license
Websitepackages.debian.org/buster/iceweasel Edit this on Wikidata

Debian's Iceweasel, Icedove, Iceowl and Iceape are respectively based on Mozilla's Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird and SeaMonkey. The rebranded products still use some Internet-based services from Mozilla, including the Mozilla plugin finder service, and Mozilla add-ons and their update notifications. There has also been no change to how non-free components, such as Flash, are found or used.

Iceape

Main article: Mozilla SeaMonkey

Iceape is a free, open source, and cross-platform Internet suite distributed by the Debian Project. Iceape is a fork of Mozilla SeaMonkey which is made entirely of free software. The Debian Project aims with Iceape to provide a version of the Mozilla SeaMonkey Internet suite which is kept in synchronization with upstream development of SeaMonkey while removing the proprietary artwork and software plugin repositories used in the official release by the Mozilla Corporation, which are classified as non-free by free software advocates.

Icedove

Main article: Mozilla Thunderbird

Icedove is an e-mail client distributed by the Debian Project. Icedove is a fork of Mozilla Thunderbird which is made entirely of free software. With Icedove, the Debian Project aims to provide a version of the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client which is kept in synchronization with upstream development of Thunderbird. It removes the proprietary artwork and software plugin repositories used in the official release by the Mozilla Corporation, which are classified as non-free by free software advocates.[18]

Iceowl

Main article: Mozilla Sunbird

Iceowl is a standalone calendar application, distributed by the Debian Project, based on code from the Mozilla Sunbird. Iceowl is designed to be a cross platform application using the XUL user interface language.

Licensing

The rebranded programs are available under Mozilla's standard MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license. Unlike Mozilla, the default icons are under the same tri-license.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Debian bug report on use of Mozilla Firefox trademark without permission".
  2. ^ "mozilla thunderbird trademark restrictions / still dfsg free ?".
  3. ^ "Re: Will IceWeasel be based on a fork or on vanilla FireFox?".
  4. ^ Overview of iceowl source package
  5. ^ "Founder of Canonical, Mark Shuttleworth, public response to Mozilla Corp request".
  6. ^ "Bug report on Canonical's launchpad titled 'AN IRRELEVANT LICENSE IS PRESENTED TO YOU FREE-OF-CHARGE ON STARTUP'".
  7. ^ a b c "Mozilla Trademark Policy".
  8. ^ "Nathanael Nerode 27 Feb 2004 email to debian-legal".
  9. ^ "Eric Dorland 27 Feb 2004 email to debian-devel".
  10. ^ Gnuzilla Homepage
  11. ^ "Joel Aelwyn 01 Jan 2005 email to debian-legal".
  12. ^ "Gervase Markham [[14 June]] [[2005]] email to debian-devel". {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  13. ^ "Gervase Markham [[19 June]] [[2005]] email to debian-devel". {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  14. ^ a b "Gnuzilla/IceWeasel Project Application". Cite error: The named reference "projectapplication" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  15. ^ "IceWeasel 1.5.0.4 Download location".
  16. ^ "Debian bug report started by Mozilla and containing much information on the Iceweasel issue".
  17. ^ "Facts about Debian and Mozilla Firefox".
  18. ^ "GNUzilla and IceCat".
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