This site http://www.torproject.org/download.html.en, is illegal distributing a version of our Portable Firefox, with it's Package found here http://www.torproject.org/torbrowser/index.html.en
Because of the Mozilla copyright and the copyrights of portableapps.com They should not be allowed to Distribute Portable Firefox without the specific permission from Mozilla, which I doubt they have, should They have I, my mistake.
It has our complete portable Firefox, launcher, Help files and source, which even includes Firefox's license.
John, please check them out, and report them to Mozilla, if they do not have the permissions to do this, which would be highly unlikely.
EDIT- The IM package also gives out Pidgin Portable, but I don't think that's illegal.
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Not Good!
Na na na, come on!
I spent some time checking out the Tor website and it seems to be a legit site with some reasonable, if paranoid (about web tracking) people. I found this reference on their download page (also note this is in reference to an 'unstable' release):
"Also, note that the Firefox in our bundle is modified from the default Firefox; we're currently working with Mozilla to see if they want us to change the name to make this clearer. "
While falling short of a credit attribution, it indicates a willingness to consider another person's work. This information may affect how John chooses to approach them.
You are complaining that a real Open-Source project is
distributing Mozillas FOSS-leecher licensed browser ?
They could take the whole thing and re-compile it as "TorFox" or whatever
and write in real small print somewhere "based on FireFox Portable by John T Haller",
instead they call it what it really is and include the Tor-button extension.
Wow, big deal ...
As for concern of web-tracking being "paranoid" : What planet are you from ?
They make their code available under the GPL/LGPL/MPL and you can do whatever you want with it under those licenses. The only thing they say is "don't dilute our trademark by doing random stuff with it", which is what the Tor folks are doing by using the Mozilla binaries with all the Firefox trademarks intact. An open source license does not give you any rights to anyone else's trademarks.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I was only complaining about the Mozilla copyrights and no attribution to us for the portablized applications
distribution of Firefox as is, is illegal.
Lead, Follow, or get out of the way.
This is, in fact, an unauthorized repackaging. They're modifying Firefox without permission which is a violation of Mozilla's trademarks. While they'd be free to recompile Firefox into their own browser and bundle TorButton, etc, they'd have to call it something else (not Firefox, or FireWhatever or WhateverFox). It also appears that they're using all my portablization code for both Firefox and Pidgin without any attribution on their pages, which is pretty lame.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
is Tor doing bad things?!? i remember it back in the days of Torrify and TorPark and as far as i can tell, they have always been doing this. i remember the last time i downed Tor it had FF 2.0.0.14 Portable bundled with it and nobody complained then.
Zoop
it's still illegal....it just happened that nobody complained then.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
TorPark was not Tor. It was a third party. And Tor made him stop using the Tor name.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
So John, are you going to do anything about it?
sure hope so
Zoop
See this four-minute video about why:
Overcoming Internet censorship-Part 3: Anticensorship tools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw3sXOARTwg
Tor is a noncommercial, free and open source project. I believe it to be worthy of our support.
I find it hard to believe that people here are really this concerned about Mozilla's trademarks. I trust that any issues, if any, between Mozilla and the Tor Project can be easily resolved.
Please note the second part of John's comment, which does reflect a GPL violation of direct concern to this site.
"It also appears that they're using all my portablization code for both Firefox and Pidgin without any attribution on their pages, which is pretty lame."
This applies even if they are in discussion with Mozilla to resolve the trademark issues (as John did earlier).
There is a html help page from PortableApps with a working donate button, as well as the Readme.txt from PortableApps and the Licence.txt with the GPL, and probably other stuff I didn't see. If there is a violation, the Tor Project should be notified. There is an IRC channel on freenode (#tor), but their main server is irc.oftc.net. They are reasonable people. I can't imagine they would violate the GPL as you say.
The software, by the way, is a must-have for me. This version ( http://www.torproject.org/torbrowser/index.html.en ) is portable, and is an easy way to test the Tor network. There are an increasing number of new hidden services in there.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Hello,
This is phobos from The Tor Project. A number of Tor users brought this
thread to our attention.
I sent an email to the business_development address on 2008-08-20 in
order to start a discussion with John T. Haller. To date, we have not
heard a response.
We believe we're using your software within the limits of the license
and do properly attribute to PortableApps as needed. Please let us know
if we're incorrect in our beliefs about this matter.
We look forward to an official response from Rare Ideas, LLC.
Thanks,
phobos
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=znfd
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A response has been sent.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!