FireFox 3 EULA

[Joel Rees]

On Sep 15, 2008, at 8:13 PM, Steve Hill wrote:

> On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, Timothy Murphy wrote:
>
>> Do you mean you see the EULA every time you login (I don't),
>> or do you mean once in the lifetime of Fedora-9, when you install  
>> Firefox?
>
> With the official FireFox 3 installer from Mozilla, you get a EULA  
> the first time you start FireFox.

Did you read it?

Some apps show you a EULA for the GPL when they install. And if you  
can7t agree to the GPL, you can click disagree and refrain from  
installing. My memory of the FireFox EULA is that it's basically the  
same thing, but with the Mozilla license. I've read it a couple of  
times, I scanned it when I installed FF2 on my Macs. The license is  
what it is. If you're worried that it isn't free or that it hasn't  
changed, run over to fsf.org and see what they say about the current  
version. I don't remember what the name of the group that claims to  
define open source is, but they also have a bit to say about such  
things. Think about what they say and about how you read the license,  
and decide if you can accept the license.

Sure, a dialogue where you have to click a button that says you read  
the license is a bit of a pain, and is a bit against the real  
concepts of freedom of thought, but when we have people who would  
like to treat all open source and free software licenses like the 1- 
clause BSD license, it may not be unreasonable for the authors to try  
to get a little bit in the face of the users about the  
responsibilities of freedom.

If the EULA goes beyond the "approved" free/open versions of the  
Mozilla license, you may have something to worry about. Do you think  
that's the case?

Joel Rees