"Iceweasel" redirects here. For the GNU browser formerly known as IceWeasel, see GNU IceCat.
Iceweasel's official logo
In 2006, a naming and use of trademark issue developed when Mike Connor, representing the Mozilla Corporation, requested that the Mozilla standards for use of the Firefox trademark be complied with by the Debian Project when it redistributed the software. At issue were modifications not approved by the Mozilla Foundation, when the name for the software remained the same.citation needed
The Debian Project then rebranded the Mozilla Firefox program, and other software released by Mozilla, so that Debian could continue to distribute the software with modifications permitted, without being bound by the use of trademark requirements that the Mozilla Foundation had required. The new names established by Debian were Iceweasel for Mozilla Firefox, Icedove for Mozilla Thunderbird, and Iceape for SeaMonkey. These changes were implemented in the subsequent version of Debian (Etch). In July 2007, Iceowl, a rebranded version of Mozilla Sunbird, was added to the unstable branch of Debian.[1]
History
Origins of the issue and of the Iceweasel name
Mozilla Corporation enforces trademarks and claims the right to deny the use of the name "Firefox" and other trademarks to unofficial builds.[2] Unless distributions use the binaries supplied by Mozilla or else have special permission, they must compile the Firefox source with an option enabled which gives Firefox the codename of the release version of Firefox on which it is based, and which does not use the official logo or other artwork.[2] The Debian Free Software Guidelines are used by the Debian project to determine whether a license is a free license, which in turn is used to determine whether something can be included in Debian. As the logo does not meet these requirements, it could not be used by software which was to be included in Debian. This effect of the Mozilla trademark policy led to a long debate within the Debian Project in 2004 and 2005. During this debate, the name “Iceweasel” was coined to refer to rebranded versions of Firefox. The first known use of the name in this context is by Nathanael Nerode[3], in reply to Eric Dorland's suggestion of “Icerabbit”.[4] It was intended as a parody of “Firefox”.[5] “Iceweasel” was subsequently used as the example name for a rebranded Firefox in the Mozilla Trademark Policy[2], and became the most commonly used name for a hypothetical rebranded version of Firefox. By 2005-01-01, rebranding was being referred to as the “Iceweasel route”.[6]
Debian was initially given permission to use the trademarks, and adopted the Firefox name.[7] However, because the artwork in Firefox has a proprietary copyright license which is not compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines, the substituted logo had to remain.[8]
Rebranding
According to packages.qa.debian.org, Iceweasel, Icedove and Iceape were first accepted into the Debian project's unstable repository on 2006-11-20, on 2006-10-14 and on 2006-12-01, respectively. Icedove migrated to Etch and Thunderbird was removed on 2006-11-11. Iceape migrated to Etch on 2007-01-11 (the old Mozilla suite having previously been removed on 2006-10-06). Iceweasel migrated (and Firefox removed) on 2007-01-18. Debian's first stable release to include Iceweasel, Icedove, and Iceape was Debian 4.0 (Etch), released 2007-04-08. Soon after the renaming Debian also replaced Mozilla's unbranded logos with new logos designed to fit with the new names.
GNU IceWeasel release
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In August 2005,[9] the Gnuzilla project adopted the IceWeasel name for a browser based on Firefox using free artwork.[9] The first Gnuzilla IceWeasel release was based on Firefox 1.5.0.4.[10] GNU IceWeasel was renamed to GNU IceCat in September 2007.
Trademark agreement revocation
In February 2006, Mike Connor, representing the Mozilla Corporation, wrote to Debian and informed them that Mozilla did not consider the way in which Debian was using the Firefox name to be acceptable.[11] Connor confirmed that the Mozilla Corporation was revoking the previous agreement with Debian which allowed them to use the Firefox name. Further messages from Mike Connor clarified Mozilla's current policies: "Yes, if you are shipping a browser called Firefox, we should be signing off on every deviation from what we ship."; and "If you are going to use the Firefox name, you must also use the rest of the branding."
As Debian could not use the logo because its license did not conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, it thus could not use the Firefox name under Mozilla's revised guidelines. In addition, Debian freezes its releases on a long term basis and later patches software in the frozen stable releases for newly-discovered security issues. Under the revised guidelines, in order to use the Firefox name, it would have been required to seek approval from the Mozilla Corporation for all security patches.
The "Iceweasel" name was revived in the Debian community as a possible name to give the rebranded version of Firefox. The Iceweasel used in Etch is not the GNU application of the same name but a rebranded Firefox created by Debian. The Debian maintainer has stated that he will "get in touch with them to see what we can do together".[12] Since September 23, 2007 the GNU fork of Firefox is called IceCat. Because exactly the same problems required that Debian rename Mozilla Thunderbird and SeaMonkey, the names Icedove and Iceape were coined as replacements.
Subsequent Ice names and products
Debian's Iceweasel, Icedove, Iceowl and Iceape are respectively based on Mozilla's Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird and SeaMonkey. The rebranded products still use some Internet-based services from Mozilla, including the Mozilla plugin finder service, and Mozilla add-ons and their update notifications. There has also been no change to how non-free components, such as Flash, are found or used.
Iceape
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Iceape is a free, open source, and cross-platform Internet suite distributed by the Debian Project. Iceape is a fork of Mozilla SeaMonkey which is made entirely of free software. The Debian Project aims with Iceape to provide a version of the Mozilla SeaMonkey Internet suite which is kept in synchronization with upstream development of SeaMonkey while removing the proprietary artwork and software plugin repositories used in the official release by the Mozilla Corporation, which are classified as non-free by free software advocates.
Icedove
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Icedove is an e-mail client distributed by the Debian Project. Icedove is a fork of Mozilla Thunderbird which is made entirely of free software. With Icedove, the Debian Project aims to provide a version of the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client which is kept in synchronization with upstream development of Thunderbird. It removes the proprietary artwork and software plugin repositories used in the official release by the Mozilla Corporation, which are classified as non-free by free software advocates.who?
Iceowl
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Iceowl is a standalone calendar application, distributed by the Debian Project, based on code from the Mozilla Sunbird. Iceowl is designed to be a cross platform application using the XUL user interface language.
Licensing
The rebranded programs are available under Mozilla's standard MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license. Unlike Mozilla, the default icons are under the same tri-license.
See also
References
External links
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