https://wiki.hyperbola.info/doku.php?id=en:main:rusts_freedom_flaws Hyperbola is an OS project aiming for maximum freedom in the ‘free software’ sense. They’ve apparently been around for two years, although I’ve only just heard of them, from their recent announcement of a pivot to “HyperbolaBSD”, a hard fork of the OpenBSD kernel and userspace including new code written under GPLv3 and LGPLv3 to replace GPL-incompatible parts and non-free ones. More relevantly, the announcement says they w...

This bug was closed automatically, but rasies some serious concerns.

Debian devs seemed very keen to emphasise that there wasn’t a special or exceptional agreement with Mozilla. They were convinced that the Mozilla trademark terms allowed for anyone patching in the way that Debian does and Mozilla were convinced that Debian’s patching didn’t break the terms. So there wasn’t (to my reading) explicit permission, merely an agreed understanding of what the terms mean…

That’s really thin ice upon which to tread. What happens if Mozilla decides to sell all assets to a “For-Profit” at some point (Yes, that CAN happen)? Let’s say, I don’t know, Oracle for example? Then what?

  • Ephera
    2•4 years ago

    That’s really thin ice upon which to tread. What happens if Mozilla decides to sell all assets to a “For-Profit” at some point (Yes, that CAN happen)?

    I mean, on a really theoretical level, yes, that could presumably happen. But Mozilla is a non-profit (their for-profit daughter is a 100% subsidiary, so can’t pay out profits to anyone either), so they would have to be really dire for money to want to refinance themselves that way.

    As a legally non-profit, they also have to follow a mission statement / manifesto that they specify. Mozilla’s mission statement is basically “Make the web a healthier place” and they list a bunch of principles that would not be violated, if they sold their assets to a for-profit: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/manifesto/

    I mean, theoretically, if they could use the money to build something that’s even better for the web, then it would be justifiable, but Rust is integrated into Firefox and Firefox is the healthiest piece of software for the internet, so in practice I really just cannot imagine that ever happening.
    And again, the Manifesto is legally binding, so it’s not that Mozilla has to think it’s ok, a judge also has to think that, if they get sued.