E-surveillance
can result in trademark infringement and brand violation. This sounds
strange but recently this sort if case come to our knowledge. A
report
provided by Citizen
Lab has disclosed this bizarre and criminal violation of
Mozilla Firefox’s trademark and rights.
Media Law has discovered that commercial Spyware
manufacturer Gamma International has been engaging in unethical
behaviour by disguising and using its malware as Mozilla Firefox
software. Naturally, users seeing the Mozilla Firefox files would
neither doubt the integrity of that malicious file nor would they
care to do a virus or malware scan upon assumed white listed and
trusted software and its corresponding files.
This way the malware can remain undetected and it
can keep on functioning illegally and unnoticed. The Spyware is known
as FinFisher
that has been openly abused by draconian and repressive governments
around the world. These incidences reaffirm the commitment to ensure
civil
liberties protection in cyberspace.
Reacting sharply, Mozilla Firefox had sent Gamma a
cease and desist letter demanding that these illegal practices stop
immediately. Mozilla said that it cannot abide a software company
using its name to disguise online surveillance tools that can be
– and in several cases actually have been – used by Gamma’s
customers to violate citizens’ human rights and online privacy.
The malware does not affect Firefox itself, either
during the installation process or when it is operating covertly on a
person’s computer or mobile device. Gamma’s software is entirely
separate, and only uses Mozilla’s brand and trademarks to lie and
mislead as one of its methods for avoiding detection and deletion.
To avoid detection from anti virus and anti malware
softwares, Gamma misrepresents its program as “Firefox.exe” and
includes the properties associated with Firefox along with a version
number and copyright and trademark claims attributed to Firefox and
Mozilla Developers. For an expert user who examines the underlying
code of the installed spyware, Gamma includes verbatim the assembly
manifest from Firefox software. This way it could remain undetected
and keep on operating at the user’s computer.
This is a serious issue and Mozilla should take
strict action against all those who are abusing its trademark and
name to deliver malware. It is not only the legal but also the moral
responsibility of Mozilla to keep its users safe from such malware
and illegal and deceptive uses.
