[LINK] What happens when an OS becomes successful?

[Craig Sanders]

On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 08:43:37AM +1000, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> By the way, Knoppix 5.1 includes ICEWEAZEL browser, this is how the Open
> Source Community responds - more on Knoppix at:
> <http://www.ramin.com.au/linux/slug-bootcamp-19may2007-knoppix.shtml>
> 
> Presumebly there is potential for some nasty legal battles as ICEWeazel
> is based on Firefox which started of as Mozilla which was based on
> Netscape. Wonder where the money will go?

there's no potential for legal battles over the iceweasel name - it
was chosen (by debian - and "inherited" by debian-based distros like
knoppix and ubuntu and others) to avoid trademark issues and avoid legal
battles.

to use the firefox name (and icons), you have to conform to a very
restrictive set of rules, and that included not changing the code
without getting it approved by mozilla corp (fair enough, they want to
protect the reputation of their firefox brand).

for the first year or so, mozilla were very lenient about use of their
trademark. then they started to enforce their rules. debian's was unable
to negotiate a continuation of the previous leniency, so debian's
response was to not use mozilla's trademark any more and call the
browser 'iceweasel' (which i think is a better name anyway). the
restrictions on code changes were completely unacceptable to debian, and
impractical too.

and everyone's happy. mozilla dont have their trademark diluted, and
debian can go on distribution their modified versions of the code same
as before (just under a different name). it's open source, so that's the
way it's supposed to be.


it's the same with other mozilla apps.  in debian:

mozilla browser is iceape browser
thunderbird mail client is icedove
firefox is iceweasel

the code is basically the same, the name has to be changed for trademark
reasons.


craig

ps: i'm back. been away in hospital for a week since Fri 18th with no
internet access. got back home yesterday afternoon.

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>