[patzerhacker]

>There is zero reason for a search engine to restrict such use (and distribution).

Because these logos depict their trademarked images, and the licensing that they'd offer would likely not allow use for any purpose. Debian's social policy requires that everything included in their distribution be freely licensed for any use.

[pdkl95]

> and the licensing that they'd offer would likely not allow use for any purpose

Then they don't want to be in the default set of search providers. Seriously, has the art of negotiating been lost completely? Google/Yahoo/etc need that strategic placement far more than they need to enforce some minor point about their logo's trademark. Debian's social policy doesn't mena they have to let themselves be browbeat by businesses without even an attempt at negotiating.

Do you really think Google or Yahoo would just say, "No, we don't care about being in Firefox/Iceweasel's default search list."? Would their shareholders be happy about losing market share over want of a trivial licence?

[patzerhacker]

>Do you really think Google or Yahoo would just say, "No, we don't care about being in Firefox/Iceweasel's default search list"?

Given that they haven't freely licensed their images and this has been an issue for some time I'm going to have to say the answer is "yes" because Firefox/Iceweasel download the missing images on startup.