Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 11th Oct 2006 14:46 UTC, submitted by brewin
As previously reported, Debian plans to release its newest version, Etch, in December, and wants Mozilla's Firefox Web browser to be part of the distribution. Mozilla, however, told Debian it couldn't release the software without its accompanying artwork. Now a legal expert says that the existing distinctions between copyright and trademark laws should have prevented this from becoming an issue in the first place. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols also discusses the issue.
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Member since:
2005-07-01
As I understand it...
Debian is not just a product, it's a base for development. Anyone can take Debian and - provided they don't touch non-free - modify and re-distibute it as much as they like without fear of breaching a license.
If someone modifies the Firefox artwork, they breach Mozilla's license. If Firefox goes into non-free, deriviative works can't incorporate it (unless they treat it as a special case and take on any legal hassles themselves). Therefore Debian are forking it to create a completely free version that everyone can use.