Fedora Remix and Adblock extension

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

On 11/30/2009 02:07 PM, Rahul Sundaram wrote:

> I am not sure, take it or leave are the only choices we have. Debian has
> a explicit rule against getting special permissions not available for
> downstreams and the rest of the free software community at clause 8 in
> DFSG at
> 
> http://www.debian.org/social_contract

Okay, for starters, as I have pointed out to you in the past
(repeatedly), we do not have any special permissions from Mozilla. We're
using the same trademark license terms as everyone else, these terms are
available to anyone. We choose to abide by their terms and use their
trademarks. You (as a redistributor) have the exact same option, you can
choose to use their trademark and follow their terms (or get alternate
terms from Mozilla), or you can remove their trademarks.

> Mozilla Firefox is the only exception that I am aware of in Fedora and
> the question for the Fedora Board (among others) is whether they
> consider it acceptable or not. The impact is essentially that I cannot
> combine two components as it is in Fedora.

Fedora itself has the same situation, we have a set of rules describing
when you can use our trademarks and what you have to do in order to use
it. If you don't want to abide by those terms, you can still modify and
redistribute Fedora, but you can't use our trademarks.

Also, as was pointed out, the Mozilla trademark license only covers
installing addons using the Firefox-built-in addon mechanism. Bundling
them together as part of the distribution doesn't trigger it.

> If the Fedora Board considers such special exceptions permissible, can
> we atleast get them documented in some place so I know I have to be
> extra careful about them in a remix? I don't think I can read trademark
> guidelines for all of the components in Fedora to determine such matters.

You need to be extra careful when dealing with licenses in general.
There is a point at which absurdity overtakes reason, and I fear we're
approaching it.

~spot