Re: Firefox-3 isn't free software. Anything free and usable for GNU?

[Barry Margolin]

In article 
<4978f998-2389-41f9-9dd2-294e6afff7b8@s9g2000prg.googlegroups.com>,
 mike3 <mike4ty4@yahoo.com> wrote:

> On Sep 15, 1:32 pm, Alan Mackenzie <a...@colin2.muc.de> wrote:
> > David Kastrup <d...@gnu.org> wrote:
> > > Alan Mackenzie <a...@colin2.muc.de> writes:
> > >> I was just starting Firefox-3 on a GNU/Linux system, when up popped a
> > >> obnoxious "end-user Software License agreement", to which you've got
> > >> to agree before the program will start properly.  Part of this is
> > >> agreeing to their "privacy policy" (a privacy policy for a PROGRAM???)
> > >> which you can't read, unless you've got another working browser, since
> > >> it only gives a web address (http://www.mozilla.com/legal/privacy).
> > >> In essence, this rambling, turgid, patronising web page says that
> > >> Firefox will "phone home" in the event of a crash (and maybe at other
> > >> times too), transmitting private and personal information to Mozilla,
> > >> which they may use in any fashion whatsoever without regard to
> > >> privacy.
> > >> (Actually, they say they'll treat it with proper respect, but that
> > >> they can change their "privacy policy" in any way at any time, without
> > >> telling anybody, including you, about it, and that it's up to you to
> > >> watch this page continually, just in case it changes).
> > >> Does anybody here know of any genuinely free web browser which runs
> > >> well in X-Windows running on GNU/Linux?
> > > It is genuinely free, so feel free to throw out all the code that does
> > > phone home.
> >
> > I don't think it's completely free: there are restrictions on using it.
> > (You've first got to accept their licensing terms, some of which are
> > difficult to read).
> >
> <snip>
> 
> Hmm. What exactly is so unfree about the agreement?

I think the simple fact that it has an EULA at all makes it incompatible 
with the GPL.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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