Will Firefox no longer be named Firefox?

[Michael V. De Palatis]

On 9/25/06, Jan Moren <jan.moren at lucs.lu.se> wrote:
> mån 2006-09-25 klockan 21:32 -0400 skrev Michael V. De Palatis:
> > On 9/25/06, m c <markc.lists at googlemail.com> wrote:
> > > Mozilla have to enforce their trademarks or they will lose them, same
> > > for all companies, including the Ubuntu and Debian trademarks and
> > > logos.
> >
> > Okay, but this is supposed to be free software. Free as in freedom.
> > Free as in no trademarks, copyrights, etc. Free as in you can do with
> > it what you wish, provided whatever you do with it is also free (well,
> > at least when a GPL or similar license is used). It's really a deeply
> > important issue, and Mozilla here is acting ridiculously. It should
> > either be free or it should not be, not something outrageously "in
> > between."
>
> Um, say what? You aven't actually checked that idea with the FSF, have
> you?
>
> GPL depends for its very existence on the enforcement of IP rights.
> "Free" is emphatically _not_ "no trademarks, copyrights, etc." It is the
> vigorous enforcement of copyrights that enables the GPL to enforce
> sharing of improvements or changes to distributed code. You're possible
> thinking of "public domain" style non-licences, which is a whole other
> (and legally rather suspect) kettle of fish.

Okay, so I oversimplified. My general point still somewhat stands,
though... Free software is still supposed to be about freedom. I'm
perfectly fine with Mozilla telling some group to stop using the name
Firefox with a modified version of Firefox specifically designed to
optimize searching for pornography, e.g. But this is not such a
situation, and it seems a little excessive to make some of these
demands.

>
>
> --
> Dr. Jan Morén (mr)
> Japan:  090-3622 8920      jan.moren at lucs.lu.se
> Sweden: 031-360 7723       http://www.lucs.lu.se/people/jan.moren/log/current.html
>
>
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-- 
Mike