14 DAY TRIAL // If you live in the UK and you want to order a Dell computer through the company’s website, you might see an option for “Mozilla Firefox Web Browser Installation Service” costing £16.25 ($27 / €20).
The Register was the first to break the story after being notified by one of its readers. The Next Web has verified the reports and confirms that only the UK website has such options (the US and Canada sites don’t).
Mozilla representatives say they don’t have any agreement with Dell so they’ve launched an investigation. The web browser developer’s trademark policy clearly prohibits anyone from charging for the software unless its name is changed.
Here are the paragraphs referring to such scenarios:
“If you are using the Mozilla Mark(s) for the unaltered binaries you are distributing, you may not charge for that product. By not charging, we mean the Mozilla product must be without cost and its distribution (whether by download or other media) may not be subject to a fee, or tied to subscribing to or purchasing a service, or the collection of personal information.
“If you want to sell the product, you may do so, but you must call that product by another name—one unrelated to Mozilla or any of the Mozilla Marks. Remember that we do not want the public to be confused.”
However, Dell representatives have told The Next Web that the offer is part of their Dell Configuration Services. Customers who want to have a computer that’s ready to use as soon as it arrives can ask Dell to install software on it.
Dell says it’s not actually charging for Firefox, but for the “time and labour involved for factory personnel to load a different image than is provided on the system’s standard configuration.”
In any case, considering that it only takes a couple of minutes to install Firefox, and you don’t need to be an IT genius to do it, £16.25 seems a bit much.
It remains to be seen what conclusion Mozilla reaches in this case.
Interestingly, when we tried to purchase a Dell OptiPlex 7010, the model TNW says included the option to ship the device with Firefox pre-installed, the option had disappeared. It’s uncertain if Dell has removed it, but as you can see in the screenshot (click to see full), the page is exactly the same, except for the missing service installation option.