Engadget calls it the biggest joke since Best Buy was charging people for PS3 firmware, but The Next Web is reporting that Dell is charging European customers £16.25 ($27.18) to install Firefox onto their new systems. From the article:
“There is no agreement between Dell and Mozilla which allows Dell or anyone else to charge for installing Firefox using that brand name,” Mozilla’s Vice President and General Counsel Denelle Dixon-Thayer told TNW. “Our trademark policy makes clear that this is not permitted and we are investigating this specific report.”
Worse yet, Dell is saying that the practice is allowed and doesn’t break Mozilla terms of service because they are charging for the service and not the actual download:
Dell has responded by saying that this practice is okay because the company is charging for the service and not the product.
“Dell Configuration Services, including the application loading service, ensure customers have a complete, ready to use product when it arrives,” a Dell spokesperson told TNW. “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.” (via)
An image from the Dell website is below and Mozilla is supposedly investigating the issue. It just boggles my mind that people can still attempt to pull this sort of act in today’s day and age. This is really no different than a snakish local repair man charging old ladies to put a restore disc into their PC and hitting enter.
Then again, if you’re dumb enough to not download a FREE program yourself and still navigate to the Dell web page to buy a new computer, you probably deserve what you get.
(Via The Next Web)