Debian and Firefox
From distrowatch.com:
"Years ago the Debian project renamed their Firefox package to Iceweasel. This change in brand was brought about due to a complex situation where Debian was patching the Firefox software and therefore running into conflict with Mozilla's trademark agreement. In short, Debian's copy of Firefox was different from Mozilla's version of Firefox and therefore Debian could no longer call their web browser Firefox. The Debian project named their patched version of Mozilla's web browser Iceweasel. Times change and it looks as though there may no longer be a conflict between Mozilla and the Debian project, meaning Debian may be able to call their copy of the Mozilla browser Firefox again. Sylvestre Ledru has suggested Debian resume using the name Firefox in order to avoid confusion and reduce the effort to maintain the web browser package. "Mozilla & Debian both acknowledge that the branding issue mentioned in bug 354622 is no longer relevant. The Firefox logo was released under a free copyright license which matches the DFSG. To simplify the maintenance of the current stable Debian release, the name Iceweasel will remain. Debian Stretch, the next release, will have Firefox as package name."
That is good news.
Just a name change. Debian will still build their own binaries, not Mozilla's.
Honestly, I don't understand how the Mozilla trademark policy permits what they are trying to do. It says you can distribute unaltered binaries, and it says you are not allowed to use the Mozilla trademarks on modified versions of the software. It says nothing about using the mark on binaries you compile yourself, but I would imagine it would fall under one of those two categories - either non-commercial only, or no use of the trademark at all - and yet, Stefano Zacchiroli implies in that link that there is some other permission which allows use of the trademark on your own compiled binaries without the restriction on commercial distribution. I hope there isn't some sort of misunderstanding here.
From now on IceCat would also be Firefox although it is built by Trisquel developers?
IceCat isn't just a rebranding of Firefox. It also bundles a bunch of add-ons to change the behavior of the browser.
I am a member!
Icecat is a GNUzilla project, not a Trisquel project. I doubt if it will change to "Firefox" because the project will want to maintain its separate identity as totally free of any connection to proprietary software.
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/
