[Leaplist] Ubuntu users now have to agree to Firefox EULA

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 9/15/08, Hank Lambert <hank at hanklambert.com> wrote:
> It appears that Ubuntu is now requiring users to agree to a
> Firefox EULA before being allowed to use the OS in the next
> release. From what I've read, after installation, the user
> is presented with a EULA from Mozilla that they must agree
> to when booting the machine for the first time. Debian chose
> not to go that route by rebranding Firefox as Iceweasel.
> I wonder if this is going to become normal in Linux?
> http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/14/195203

There are several issues, many legal, some even technical.

If a distro provides significant code to The Mozilla
Foundation and/or has a signed, legal agreement (typically
one has the other as well, by the virtue of the level of
the code contributions requiring additional, legal
agreements), with The Mozilla Foundation, then they
typically don't run into this.  I.e., they are allowed to
redistribute Firefox as part of their OS without the
additional click.

People forget that Canonical, including Ubuntu (as pertinent),
is still much smaller than, say, a Novell or Red Hat --
both revenue and, more significantly here, code contribution
wise, which avoids a lot of these "redistribution" issues.
They also don't have the overall community resources of
Debian, at least on these "less cool" projects than a lot
of the desktop interoperability that Canonical/Ubuntu usually
focuses on.

So Canonical/Ubuntu has to either choose to adopt Debian's
IceWeasel approach (possibly leveraging their work), or opt
for the other option The Mozilla Foundation is giving them.
People shouldn't expect them to be able to fund the
development and/or contribute-sign the agreements that
Red Hat or Novell do.  It's just a necessary evil, and no one
should criticize Canonical/Ubuntu, or even The Mozilla
Foundation for that matter (they have some sound, legal, and
at least a few good technical ones I've heard) for doing
this.

BTW, this is my "outside viewpoint."  I could be off-the-mark.

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