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Dell Charging £16 Fee for Installing Firefox

posted by LaminatorX on Saturday March 08 2014, @07:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the Dude,-you're-getting-a-bill! dept.

lhsi writes:

"Mozilla are investigating reports that Dell is charging customers £16 to install the Firefox browser, according to The Register.

Mozilla's trademark policy says that you can't charge for distributing unaltered binaries of the software.

According to the BBC, Dell said that the money was being charged for the time and labour involved.

"In this particular situation, the customer would not be charged for the Mozilla Firefox software download, rather the fee would cover the time and labour involved for factory personnel to load a different image than is provided on the system's standard configuration."

A preliminary consultation with legal teams has stated at Mozilla, but is at an early stage."

 
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Angry Jesus on Saturday March 08 2014, @08:20PM

    by Angry Jesus (182) on Saturday March 08 2014, @08:20PM (#13375)

    Just like how you're really paying for support with some Linux Distributions.

    RTFA. Mozilla's trademark licensing terms prevent Dell from doing it.
    Dell can charge all they want, they just can't advertise with the Firefox trademark if they do.

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  • (Score: 1) by ngarrang on Saturday March 08 2014, @11:31PM

    by ngarrang (896) on Saturday March 08 2014, @11:31PM (#13425) Journal

    So, when someone asks me to come over and install something for them, I am committing an illegal act by charging the person for my time and travel to install FireFox for them?

    • (Score: 1) by Angry Jesus on Sunday March 09 2014, @12:34AM

      by Angry Jesus (182) on Sunday March 09 2014, @12:34AM (#13434)

      Yeah, that is exactly what I meant.

      Doh!

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by mcgrew on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:49PM

        by mcgrew (701) on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:49PM (#13615) Homepage Journal

        It ain't so until a judge says it's so.

        --
        Free Nobots! [mcgrewbooks.com]

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @10:54PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @10:54PM (#13726)

          Trademark law is a well-settled area.
          It isn't like obeying licensing terms in exchange for the ability to use a trademark is anything new.