On Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 8:47:41 AM UTC-7, Majken Connor wrote, responding to [email protected]: >... but you also say these changes [in Firefox 39] are forced. They're > not, they're just the default. >
NO! I just re-installed Firefox 35.0.1 again (after carefully removing Firefox 39, which got AUTOMATICALLY installed over FF 35.0.1, which I set to not auto-update). I assumed that I had made some mistake in installing FF 35 the first time. So this time, literally THE FIRST THING I did with the new installation was "Tools >Options >Advanced >Updates >Never Check for Updates". I set a few other preferences, and closed Firefox. A few minutes later, I opened Firefox and got Version 39. Saying that this "upgrade" is "just the default" is like saying that gravity is the default. Point 1: How does Mozilla justify push-installing an uninvited program. The usual term for doing that is "distributing a virus", and is frowned on polite company; unethical if not illegal. Point 2: The new DRM module - yes, you do get to disable it, (perhaps because anything from Adobe is bound to be leak private information and be buggy). But "Once you opt out, Firefox will delete any downloaded CDMs from your hard drive, cease all future CDM downloads" (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-drm). Neither Mozilla nor Adobe own anything on my computer. So what give them right to rummage through my computer, deleting files and blocking downloads? This is the behavior of some of the most virulent and destructive viruses. How can that be even legal, much less than ethical? Point 3: I expect today or tomorrow at the latest, that the "pocket" will be hack by the NSA, China, an MIT computer science student, the bored teenager next door. Consider: You (the user -- yes, you personally, not the literary "you") carefully select content, links, etc. which interest you, and label this info with your NAME, date stamp, location, device info, etc. You hand these gems to ... who? where? seen by whom? Who owns the content that you put in this "pocket". Who sees it? Who sells it? Who discloses it your "friends" on some social medium? Evidently "pocket" is a commercial, for-profit, non-open-source, enterprise. Do we even know what country's laws govern the data's use and access? Point 3a: To use the Pocket, you have to use a Mozilla id, which gives them any rights they choose they say you agreed to ("by using this service, you agree to ....") I.e. Mozilla doesn't to even need to hack the "pocket" -- it's theirs for the picking! Given their disregard for ethics shown in points 1 and 2, and the reckless contempt for privacy in 3, do you have any doubt that Mozilla will soon become one of the world's richest, sleaziest vendors of personal information and personalized detailed profiles? Point 4: Mozilla is now putting proprietary code right into guts of Firefox, and this code does things that many of don't want any part of. Their rationale is what? That they will loose market share to Apple? Microsoft? That Pockets and and Adobe are so fab and cool that we must have them, and clearly extension and plugins are just not cool enough? This a clear repudiation of what they claim to stand for. Point 4a: I think Mozilla doesn't really give a damn -- what, we're going to leave in droves and go to Apple or Microsoft. Mozilla knows they are behaving equally poorly, so where where could we go? Cartel 101. Increasingly, Mozilla is acting like a duck, and talking like a duck. How long before they introduce the "Premium" version of Firefox, which for a moderate price, will give you some premium features or less bugs. Notice how nicely DRM controls and Pockets act together as a prototype secure cloud-based service. Amazing. How handy that new engineering is just what you would need to create and market Mozilla II. And exciting that we all get to beta-test, just for free. Open-source is worth fighting for. With Firefox 39, Mozilla has changed sides, and the bad guys are winning. _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
