
Main *Pale Moon Homepage* Pale Moon Start Page Pale Moon Add-ons Site Pale Moon Developer Site Information Release notes The project > General information Rumor Control Project history Roadmap Pale Moon branding Technical details Screenshots Bounty Program Donations and Support Redistribution Download Pale Moon > Pale Moon Pale Moon Portable Pale Moon language packs Other > 3rd Party Builds Archived versions [DEV] Source code Add-ons Extensions Themes Search Plugins Language Packs More... Tools Pale Moon Sync service Profile Backup tool Pale Moon Commander Pale Moon Tab Groups Flash Protected Mode tool Help Forum F.A.Q. Contact Contact
Legal considerations Source Code The Pale Moon browser is open source and free software. This means that it is not only available for download free of charge, but you have access to the source code and may modify and redistribute our software subject to certain restrictions. Our source code is for the most part covered by the Mozilla Public License v2.0, but various parts and libraries included in the browser carry different licensing, and as a whole this project has a hybrid licensing model which is governed by various licenses outlined in about:license in the browser itself. Please make sure you understand the licensing involved before publishing derivative works. For more details about the Open Source nature of our code base, please read the applicable source code license. To get a complete overview of which part of this software is covered by which free software license, type about:license in the address bar. Trademarks Although our source code is provided under a free software license, it is very important to note that we strictly enforce our trademark (™) rights, in order to be able to protect our users against people who use the marks to commit fraud. Our trademarks include, among others, the names Pale Moon™ and "Your Browser, Your Way"™, as well as the Pale Moon™ logo, Goanna™ name and logo, Goanna Runtime Environment™, GRE™ and other project and product names. This means that, while you have considerable freedom to redistribute and modify the software's core code, there are tight restrictions on your ability to use the names and logos in ways which fall in the domain of common trademark law, even when these trademarked names and assets are included in the source tree and built into binaries that we provide for distribution. In addition, we do use some of Mozilla's trademarks in our communication, like Mozilla's trademarks of Firefox® and XUL™. We honor and respect these trademarks to belong to their respective owners and use them to refer to specific products and technologies incorporated in, or in relation to, our work (nominative use). For more detail on our trademark licensing, see our Branding Policy and Redistribution License. Executable Software Executable software binaries of core products released by Moonchild Productions, such as Pale Moon, are made available under the terms of the binary redistribution license. This license also outlines the situation where binaries are built from source with official branding. Please note that this redistribution license grants additional permissions to otherwise protected content (like branding) not falling under the MPL, to allow building and distribution of the browser specifically in environments where pre-built binaries may not be the best choice. It should be noted that Basilisk, a different browser originally made by us but that is currently independently owned and developed by a different party, has never come with the additional freedoms associated with the Pale Moon binary distribution license, and any redistribution of built-from-source binaries may potentially not carry official branding, regardless of operating system. Please see the relevant documentation associated with that browser from its current developer. Helper applications and tools may be made available under different licenses like the Pale Moon Freeware License or MIT licenses -- please see the applicable page of the tools or utilities in question to see which license(s) apply. On some proprietary, non-free platforms, necessary binary components (such as runtime libraries) subject to other licenses may be included in the installer or packaged with the application to assure proper run-time operation. These components fall under their own software licensing but are allowed to be redistributed in this way as part of Pale Moon. Please carefully evaluate your rights in case of redistribution of derivative works including these third-party components to know if you have the rights/permissions to do so. Other publication materials Other materials for publication, like screenshots of the software, videos of its operation, presentations including the software in operation and similar forms of representative display of the software do not fall under redistribution restrictions as they are considered to fall under fair use when directly referring to the software. As such they may be freely used, shared, reproduced and published, even if they include otherwise protected branding names or imagery. For more details, please refer to common texts about fair use of trademark names, product/company logos and similar materials in the context of promotion and informative presentation. Informative, Not Authoritative This page is designed to inform, not to be the final, authoritative reference. If you're looking to reuse or redistribute something we have created, always check the licensing in the object of interest itself (for example, in the footer of a web page, or in the "About" box of software) after you've looked at this document. In case of a conflict between this document and other documents (for example, if this document and the header file of a particular source code file conflict) the other document should take precedence. If you do discover such a conflict, please notify legal@palemoon.org so we can fix it. Questions? If, after reading all the above carefully, you have a further question about the licensing terms of anything created by Moonchild Productions or the Pale Moon project, please send the question to legal@palemoon.org. Site and contents Copyright © 2009-2025 Moonchild Productions - All rights reserved Important legal considerations surrounding Pale Moon. Policies: Cookies - User Content - Privacy.

Legal considerations

Source Code

The Pale Moon browser is open source and free software. This means that it is not only available for download free of charge, but you have access to the source code and may modify and redistribute our software subject to certain restrictions. Our source code is for the most part covered by the Mozilla Public License v2.0, but various parts and libraries included in the browser carry different licensing, and as a whole this project has a hybrid licensing model which is governed by various licenses outlined in about:license in the browser itself. Please make sure you understand the licensing involved before publishing derivative works.

For more details about the Open Source nature of our code base, please read the applicable source code license. To get a complete overview of which part of this software is covered by which free software license, type about:license in the address bar.

Trademarks

Although our source code is provided under a free software license, it is very important to note that we strictly enforce our trademark (™) rights, in order to be able to protect our users against people who use the marks to commit fraud. Our trademarks include, among others, the names Pale Moon™ and "Your Browser, Your Way"™, as well as the Pale Moon™ logo, Goanna™ name and logo, Goanna Runtime Environment™, GRE™ and other project and product names. This means that, while you have considerable freedom to redistribute and modify the software's core code, there are tight restrictions on your ability to use the names and logos in ways which fall in the domain of common trademark law, even when these trademarked names and assets are included in the source tree and built into binaries that we provide for distribution.

In addition, we do use some of Mozilla's trademarks in our communication, like Mozilla's trademarks of Firefox® and XUL™. We honor and respect these trademarks to belong to their respective owners and use them to refer to specific products and technologies incorporated in, or in relation to, our work (nominative use).

For more detail on our trademark licensing, see our Branding Policy and Redistribution License.

Executable Software

Executable software binaries of core products released by Moonchild Productions, such as Pale Moon, are made available under the terms of the binary redistribution license. This license also outlines the situation where binaries are built from source with official branding. Please note that this redistribution license grants additional permissions to otherwise protected content (like branding) not falling under the MPL, to allow building and distribution of the browser specifically in environments where pre-built binaries may not be the best choice.

It should be noted that Basilisk, a different browser originally made by us but that is currently independently owned and developed by a different party, has never come with the additional freedoms associated with the Pale Moon binary distribution license, and any redistribution of built-from-source binaries may potentially not carry official branding, regardless of operating system. Please see the relevant documentation associated with that browser from its current developer.

Helper applications and tools may be made available under different licenses like the Pale Moon Freeware License or MIT licenses -- please see the applicable page of the tools or utilities in question to see which license(s) apply.
On some proprietary, non-free platforms, necessary binary components (such as runtime libraries) subject to other licenses may be included in the installer or packaged with the application to assure proper run-time operation. These components fall under their own software licensing but are allowed to be redistributed in this way as part of Pale Moon. Please carefully evaluate your rights in case of redistribution of derivative works including these third-party components to know if you have the rights/permissions to do so.

Other publication materials

Other materials for publication, like screenshots of the software, videos of its operation, presentations including the software in operation and similar forms of representative display of the software do not fall under redistribution restrictions as they are considered to fall under fair use when directly referring to the software. As such they may be freely used, shared, reproduced and published, even if they include otherwise protected branding names or imagery. For more details, please refer to common texts about fair use of trademark names, product/company logos and similar materials in the context of promotion and informative presentation.

Informative, Not Authoritative

This page is designed to inform, not to be the final, authoritative reference. If you're looking to reuse or redistribute something we have created, always check the licensing in the object of interest itself (for example, in the footer of a web page, or in the "About" box of software) after you've looked at this document.

In case of a conflict between this document and other documents (for example, if this document and the header file of a particular source code file conflict) the other document should take precedence. If you do discover such a conflict, please notify legal@palemoon.org so we can fix it.

Questions?

If, after reading all the above carefully, you have a further question about the licensing terms of anything created by Moonchild Productions or the Pale Moon project, please send the question to legal@palemoon.org.