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Is it possible to re-brand an MPL licensed open source software?

Open Source Asked by kallada on August 28, 2021

I have a question regarding the "MPL" license. Is it possible to re-brand and distribute an MPL licensed open-source software for commercial purposes? I read that Debian has rebranded software in MPL, but couldn’t get a clear picture. Any pointers would be helpful.

One Answer

Rebranding a software suite is a modification that is allowed by all open-source licenses. If you can effectively use the rebranded software in your commercial product depends on the license terms and if they would conflict with the way you want to exploit the commercial product.

The MPL license has 3 main requirements that are relevant here

  • The source code must remain under the MPL license
  • Recipients of the binaries must be informed of their rights and where they can obtain a copy of the source code (at a cost no higher than the actual distribution costs)
  • The license on the binaries may not restrict the rights on the source code.

Regarding the rebranded MPL software in the Debian distribution, Debian has used rebranded versions of the Mozilla applications Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey from 2006 to 2016. The rebranding was done because Debian and Mozilla had a conflict over the terms for using the Mozilla trademarks (which includes the branding).

Correct answer by Bart van Ingen Schenau on August 28, 2021

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