On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:58:59 -0500, Jack Aboutboul <jaboutboul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > This is almost exactly like the qmail situation. No there's a huge difference... you can't even rebrand qmail and distributed modified versions. Mozilla is saying something else, they are saying 'you are free to modify this.. but if you do.. remove the trademark protected material when you modify' Qmail's restrictions prevent you from distributing any modifications. Mozilla's policy forces you to make certain modifications if you modify without approval. Its apples and oranges. Trademarks and copyright are very different things handled in the legal system in very different ways. You have to be much more diligent in proactively protecting a trademark in the US than you do about protecting copyrights. Qmail's restrictions are completely and utterly circumscribed by copyright. Mozilla's restrictions try to limit themselves to aspects of trademark law without unduly burdening the distribution and modification rights to the un-trademarked codebase. I don't think i've seen a reasonably informed legal opinion which says compelling someone to remove trademarked content when modifying any software under an OSI approved copyright license, breaks the copyright license conditions. Whether or not mozilla's approach to protecting trademarks associated with an open source project is the best model remains to be seen. However, I don't think its wise to write-off trademarks and branding completely as something open source projects cannot make use of as a means of legal protection against people who would try to take advantage of the projects efforts. -jef
