Mozilla Corporation software rebranded by the Debian project
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The name dispute between Mozilla and Debian was born in 2006, as the Mozilla developer Mike Connor compliance with certain conditions on the part of Debian urged to continue to use the trademarks of the Mozilla Corporation may. Debian did not agree with these terms and decided to rename the modified versions of the Mozilla programs: Firefox in Iceweasel, Thunderbird in icedove, Sunbird in iceowl and SeaMonkey Iceape. These changes can be seen since Debian 4.0 Etch.
Cause
In June 2005 there was already a discussion between Mozilla and Debian developers to the trademark rights of Mozilla. At this time, the Mozilla Foundation Debian gave the rights to use their marks given Debian's changes remained within certain specified limits not accurate.
As a result of the creation of Mozilla Corporation, the trademark were transferred to this company. Here we had encountered on Ubuntu that the name " Firefox" was used without the logos and icons from Mozilla contrary to the Mozilla Trademark Policy in Debian. Then it was reported in Debian in February 2006 as an error and it developed a discussion.
Because of the controversy, the organizers have decided from the Debian project, rename the Mozilla products as part of the Debian distribution. Moving a corresponding request by the Debian project, the name change because of the imminent release of version 4.0 ( " etch " ), was rejected by the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox was then given the name Iceweasel and Thunderbird was for Icedove. In the same month, it was decided to rename SeaMonkey Iceape. Although SeaMonkey is developed outside of Mozilla, but Mozilla Corporation also worked in this case, ensure that you register the product name and the logos as a brand, and has also hinted examine each case before and want to approve the patches here. On 19 October 2006, the brand was eventually assigned to Mozilla.
Concerns of Mozilla
The objective of the restrictive policy of the Mozilla Corporation regarding the use of their product names and logos is, among other things, that errors and problems of descendants of the Mozilla products are not damaged the reputation of the Mozilla project, and that a name abuses are prevented. In addition, appearance, operation and capabilities on all platforms and distributions should be as equal as possible.
That's why Debian should use the corresponding icons in their distribution and in addition to Debian's changes and additions to the source code of Mozilla are reviewed before publication on quality and security. In addition, it interferes with Mozilla that Debian old versions supplied with security patches, instead of this upgrade to newer versions.
Trademark law alone is not sufficient for the protection of the Logos, which is why they can not be released under a free license as part of the software products. So Mozilla wants to influence them on which background the logo may be located.
Concerns of Debian
Debian on the other hand has a strict policy called Debian Free Software Guidelines, which must follow all parts of the Debian project. Prepaid licenses for logos and icons, such as Mozilla uses it contradict this. These trademarks may, however, be protected by the trademark, which is tolerated by Debian. Would Debian also supply these files with the products, it would have to as a " non-free " software classify and remove it from the regular distribution.
Furthermore, Debian did the fear that the tests would delay Mozilla releases and security patches inappropriate. The changes of Debian that are not Debian- specific, are the original developers ( here: Mozilla) given immediately.
Also, Debian surprised that the previously given permission has been withdrawn, although Debian has made fewer changes than it was at the time. In particular, replacement of the icons was even then practiced.
To the Mozilla products continue to be able to deliver with the Debian operating system, in order to make independent of approval by the Mozilla Corporation changes and to implement the requirements of the Mozilla Corporation, Debian decided to rename and to use their own logos and icons.
Reactions to the renaming
In the municipality of Firefox users, this development has been critically discussed and expressed the fear that the dispute between the two large open source projects and the distribution of the Firefox browser under different names could hurt its development, dissemination and awareness. Furthermore makes it difficult to rename Internet research. On the other hand, the development is seen as an amicable solution that will benefit both projects.
Firefox and Thunderbird in Ubuntu
While Ubuntu is based on Debian and also used the free world of Mozilla Firefox logo under the name before this dispute, Canonical agreed with Mozilla. Since Edgy Eft ( 6.10) Firefox and Thunderbird under Ubuntu come with original logos. Paradoxically, Ubuntu should have made it much more extensive changes to the source code as Debian. Mike Hommey - a Debian Developer - explains Debian Iceweasel would have changed the 6 files that were not changed by Ubuntu, Ubuntu developers have made this changes to 46 files that were not touched by Debian. The remaining compared to the original Mozilla source code modified files are the same in Debian and Ubuntu.
GNUzilla and GNU IceCat (formerly IceWeasel )
Regardless of the differences of opinion between Debian developers and the Mozilla Corporation, a small team had initiated the GNUzilla project as part of the GNU Project, whose goal is to publish completely free versions of some software products from the Mozilla project. The original name of GNUzilla version of Mozilla Firefox was also GNU IceWeasel ( in contrast to the Debian package with a capital " W"), but was renamed to GNU IceCat. At this version of the popular browser but worked independently from Debian Iceweasel. Debian and GNUzilla developers gave known, however, to want to explore possibilities of future cooperation. In August 2007, two years after the project started, Firefox was the only Mozilla application whose GNUzilla variant recorded activity.
On the website of GNUzilla and IceCat the GNUzilla version of Firefox has been offered as a trial version for download in August 2007, were missing other components of the Mozilla products. GNUzilla is used as a name for the project harboring analogous to the name Mozilla. A software product named GNUzilla, does not exist.
The same naming part GNUzilla and Debian (except for capitalization) has led to misunderstandings, so that many thought that Debian itself and not GNUzilla would make this many changes, distribute and not appropriate to work with Mozilla. Other Debian users said they now would get GNUzillas IceWeasel instead of Firefox, and were partly annoyed. Ultimately, the GNUzilla team decided in September 2007 to change the name of their Firefox version in IceCat.
GNUzilla away, not unlike some Linux distributions also, non-free components from the source code of Firefox. In addition, the GNU developers have made some small changes to the functionality. This includes the recognition of so-called web beacons. For a complete list of modifications is on the GNUzilla website. Some of these modifications cause problems when taking over of recent changes in the Firefox GNUzilla offshoot.
More renaming
In addition to the Debian project and the project GNUzilla another name was also the unofficial Ubuntu derivative gNewSense for the Mozilla Firefox elected: " BurningDog ". This name also corresponds to the scheme to combine an elemental state with an animal.