[Bug 269656] Re: AN IRRELEVANT LICENSE IS PRESENTED TO YOU FREE-OF-CHARGE ON STARTUP

[Steve Langasek]

I understand the concerns about the appropriateness of EULAs in free
software programs (in part because I share them), but I don't see that
anything here warrants being a blocker for the alpha-6 milestone
release, so I'm dropping the milestone value for this bug.  In terms of
the bug being on the release team's radar, I think that's accomplished -
it seems all the world is aware of this bug at this point.  But I think
there are several arguments against treating this as a blocker to be
resolved prior to alpha-6:

- The EULA in question does not, from what I understand, require you to agree with it before using the browser.  Actually, thus far I've closed the tab without reading it or giving my assent to it (and therefore, without effecting any binding agreement...)  So this is not, to my reading, a critical bug in the sense of non-free software having snuck into main, the primary impact of the bug is that the EULA is a nuisance.  (Indeed, it appears that the EULA tab is opened up every time I resume a firefox session - I'm not sure whether this is intentional, or whether folks would agree this is a bug, and that the EULA is only meant to be shown to the user once?)
- Even if the EULA were to demand a click-through, the fact that the source license remains free means I would have the option to edit the source as a user to bypass the EULA entirely.  Not that I'm arguing this is a good overall solution, of course; I think it would be bad for Ubuntu if users by and large felt they needed to route around Ubuntu's default browser for such a reason.  But I think it does mitigate the urgency of this bug, especially in light of the unbranded abrowser package that has been made available in Ubuntu.
- There is not a clear consensus within the Ubuntu community that this is a bug, or if it is a bug, what the appropriate solution to the bug looks like, and it's not appropriate to block the milestone indefinitely while such a consensus develops.

I would also remind the many folks who have been commenting in this bug
log that Ubuntu being a community distribution does not mean that Ubuntu
development decisions are made by either popular vote or
applause-o-meter, and that the launchpad bugs system is not a discussion
forum.  I'm confident that every effort is being made to ensure that the
outcome here is acceptable to the Ubuntu community (and the larger Free
Software community), but repeating points here that have been made
previously is not going to have a substantial effect on bringing about
your preferred outcome; indeed, I think the main impact it has is to
make this bug log frighteningly long and hard to find information in,
and cause a mail storm for the poor developers who are tasked with
maintaining the firefox packages in Ubuntu.  Please consider whether
you're adding new content in this discussion, or if the second 400 bug
comments are going to be repeats of the first 400.

** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu Intrepid)
       Target: intrepid-alpha-6 => None

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AN IRRELEVANT LICENSE IS PRESENTED TO YOU FREE-OF-CHARGE ON STARTUP
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/269656
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