1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

Description

[François Marier [:francois]]

We use this GPL Disconnect list for Tracking Protection:

  https://services.disconnect.me/disconnect-plaintext.json

and it has this GPL header:

"Copyright 2010-2015 Disconnect, Inc.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>."

Comment 1

[François Marier [:francois]]

Attachment: MozReview Request: Bug 1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license. r?gerv

Bug 1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license. r?gerv

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv] (not reading bugmail)]

Hmm. Do we have a formal relationship with disconnect.me for this purpose? Do you know who in biz dev manages it?

Gerv

Comment 3

[François Marier [:francois]]

(In reply to Gervase Markham [:gerv] from comment #2)
> Hmm. Do we have a formal relationship with disconnect.me for this purpose?

Yes, we're in the process of signing a contract with Disconnect.

> Do you know who in biz dev manages it?

Not sure who's the bizdev contact, but Elvin (CCed on this bug) is the legal contact. He's the one who asked for this.

Comment 4

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

BD contact is Chris Arnold, but he is sort of subbing for Jishnu. I am main point of contact on the deal-side.

Comment 5

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

Some particular guidance on how this should be done.

We should indicate that "This license may apply to blocklists downloaded during runtime for use with Private Browsing's tracking protection feature, as a separate and independent work as described in Section 5." (Please check with Javaun re: exactly what we should refer to the feature as.)

We should include the entire text of the GPL 3 (available at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html)

Ping me offline if you have questions, please. Thank you!

Comment 6

[François Marier [:francois]]

Javaun, Elvin suggests the following text for the license notice on "about:license":

"This license may apply to blocklists downloaded during runtime for use with Private Browsing's tracking protection feature, as a separate and independent work as described in Section 5."

Is that how we should refer to the feature?

Comment 7

[Javaun Moradi [:javaun]]

That's fine. There's a question of finality around the name,  and it it changes this might have to change. But Elvins guidance on name is as good as it gets right now

Comment 8

[François Marier [:francois]]

(In reply to Javaun Moradi [:javaun] from comment #7)
> That's fine. There's a question of finality around the name,  and it it
> changes this might have to change. But Elvins guidance on name is as good as
> it gets right now

Actually, can I shorten that bit to "for use with the tracking protection feature" instead of "for use with Private Browsing's tracking protection feature"?

With that more generic wording, we won't have to revise this page (which I can almost guarantee we'll forget) when we expand the scope of TP.

Comment 9

[Gervase Markham [:gerv] (not reading bugmail)]

OK. francois: please can you produce a new patch for about:license, that:

* adds "GNU General Public License 3.0" below "GNU Lesser General Public License 3.0" in the list at the top
* adds the full license text at the appropriate place, marked up in the same style as the other GPL licenses, with the internal link to it working
* adds a preamble to the full text, as follows:

"This license does not apply to any of the code shipped with Firefox, but may apply to blocklists downloaded after installation for use with the tracking protection feature. Such blocklists are a separate and independent work as described in Section 5 of this license."

Thanks,

Gerv

Comment 10

[Javaun Moradi [:javaun]]

(In reply to François Marier [:francois] from comment #8)
> Actually, can I shorten that bit to "for use with the tracking protection
> feature" instead of "for use with Private Browsing's tracking protection
> feature"?

Hi Francois. I like the suggestion. Before we change the text, we need to run it by Elvin to make sure it's ok.

Comment 11

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

Fine with me.

Comment 12

[François Marier [:francois]]

Comment on attachment 8653214 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license. r?gerv

Bug 1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license. r?gerv

Comment 13

[Gervase Markham [:gerv] (not reading bugmail)]

Comment on attachment 8653214 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license. r?gerv

r=gerv.

Gerv

Comment 14

[Pulsebot]

https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/cf61909d89df

Comment 15

[François Marier [:francois]]

Comment on attachment 8653214 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license. r?gerv

Approval Request Comment
[Feature/regressing bug #]: 1198586
[User impact if declined]: Possible lack of compliance with the GPL?
[Describe test coverage new/current, TreeHerder]: Manual testing of about:license
[Risks and why]: Low since it's just adding an entry to an HTML page.
[String/UUID change made/needed]: None, we don't translate licenses.

Comment 16

[Carsten Book [:Tomcat]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/cf61909d89df

Comment 17

[Sylvestre Ledru [:sylvestre]]

Comment on attachment 8653214 [details]
MozReview Request: Bug 1198586 - Add Disconnect's GPL notice to about:license. r?gerv

We care about legal, taking it.

Comment 18

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

Hi Sylvestre, can we target 42 for this change? (This relates to Polaris.)

Comment 19

[Sylvestre Ledru [:sylvestre]]

Yep, 42 is currently in aurora. :)

Comment 20

[Sylvestre Ledru [:sylvestre]]

I know this is confusing but Target Milestone is the version in which it first landed.

Comment 21

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

You're right, it's confusing. I'll just leave it be. :) THanks!

Comment 22

[Wes Kocher (:KWierso)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-aurora/rev/5b331e322760

Comment 23

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

Is it possible to revise this slightly to make clear who/where it's coming from in our laundry list?

Right now we have link text of "GNU General Public License 3.0"; can we change this to "GNU General Public License 3.0 (Disconnect, Inc. tracking protection lists only)" or something similar?

Comment 24

[François Marier [:francois]]

(In reply to Elvin Lee [:ellee] from comment #23)
> Right now we have link text of "GNU General Public License 3.0"; can we
> change this to "GNU General Public License 3.0 (Disconnect, Inc. tracking
> protection lists only)" or something similar?

We also include a Swedish dictionary that's under the LGPLv3. Given that the LGPLv3 is not a standalone license, but rather a set of extra permissions on top of GPLv3, our copy of the GPL is not just there for the Disconnect lists. We're required to ship a copy of both the LGPLv3 and the GPLv3 with the Swedish dictionary.

Isn't the current text clear enough that it's just for the TP lists?

"This license does not apply to any of the code shipped with Firefox, but may apply to blocklists downloaded after installation for use with the tracking protection feature. Such blocklists are a separate and independent work as described in Section 5 of this license."

Comment 25

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

Yes, it's clear but it would be good to also indicate the copyright holder (Disconnect, Inc.).

Perhaps revise to say:

This license does not apply to any of the code shipped with Firefox, but may apply to Disconnect.me blocklists downloaded after installation for use with the tracking protection feature. Firefox and such blocklists are separate and independent works as described in Section 5 of this license.

Comment 26

[Gervase Markham [:gerv] (not reading bugmail)]

(In reply to François Marier [:francois] from comment #24) 
> We also include a Swedish dictionary that's under the LGPLv3. 

Just to confirm: we ship this as part of the Swedish build?

(In reply to Elvin Lee [:ellee] from comment #23)
> Is it possible to revise this slightly to make clear who/where it's coming
> from in our laundry list?
> 
> Right now we have link text of "GNU General Public License 3.0"; can we
> change this to "GNU General Public License 3.0 (Disconnect, Inc. tracking
> protection lists only)" or something similar?

For an entry in a table of contents, that's pretty darn ugly :-)

What confusion are you concerned about, in the mind of whom? If someone is making decisions about how Firefox licensing works based on simply skimming the list of licenses we print, then they will have other bigger problems...

Gerv

Comment 27

[Elvin Lee [:ellee] (no longer with Mozilla)]

Currently we don't mention the name of the copyright holder anywhere, which is what I would like to add.

Comment 28

[François Marier [:francois]]

I filed bug 1210192 for this update.