Mozilla Foundation Launches Mozilla Corporation

An anonymous reader writes "MozillaZine is reporting that the Mozilla Foundation has created a commercial subsidiary to continue development of Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird. Don't let the word "commercial" scare you, the new Mozilla Corporation (as it has been dubbed) will be owned 100% by the Mozilla Foundation. The change is mostly a legal/tax thing to avoid the problems of pursuing revenue-generating avenues while remaining a non-profit. There will be no change to the development process and end-users won't notice much difference either. See also the Mozilla Foundation press release about the Mozilla Corporation and the Mozilla reorganization FAQ."

Re:OB

[BoldAC]

For once the slashdot cliche actually works...

Making money is not a bad thing for such a product. It gives the project insurance against the evils that will be thrown against it--patents, hacks, clones.

My prediction is that firefox will develop more and more commerical-like features: Bundling with certain software, branding for certain services, etc.

IE will likely develop more open-source-like features: listening to user, more standards compliance, more open APIs.)

In most battles, the enemies become more and more like each other in the end. For example, in politics, as the election draws nearer both candidates spirial toward the center.

Something doesn't make sense

[amliebsch]

There's no reason that that a non-profit corporation can't have revenues. In fact, they can have massive revenues. The profits just can't accrue to private profits. So there's really only two reasons I can think of for this change: (1) the folks at Mozilla want to start getting rich, and/or (2) they want to attract private investment (which neccessarily entails revenues accruing to the investors).

The Google Connection

[MBoffin]

I think one of the underlying reasons for this is Google. It's not explicitly stated that this is the reason, but that's what I read between the lines when reading the FAQ about the reorganization [mozilla.org]. After reading Mitchell Baker's blog [mozillazine.org], I'm almost certain of it (though he doesn't explicitly state it either).

I think we will be seeing some more serious collaboration between Mozilla and Google now.

deviantART?

[IAmTheDave]

This may be cause for a tiny bit of concern, considering what has been happening over at devianART, with the ousting of jark [deviantart.com] (one of the two original founders) by the corporate entity.

The lesson of deviantART is that once the corporation starts pursuing profits, and this becomes more important than the community, the origins of the foundation and the original purpose and driving force of the community may become lost.

"To promote choice and innovation..."

[NickFortune]

What is the role of the Mozilla Corporation?

The Mozilla Corporation is responsible for productizing and distributing Firefox, Thunderbird, and related branded products built on the Mozilla open source code base. The Mozilla Corporation's mission, shared by that of the Mozilla Foundation, is to promote choice and innovation on the Internet.

Whoo, what'd they do - cut and past that last bit from an epiphyte(2) prospectus?

Sometimes I could almost wish one of these press releases would say our aim is to make the Internet a shittier place for everyone and to gouge the public so deep that their children's children will still be paying off the debt. I wouldn't approve, but at least it would reduce the entropy of the data stream.

It's not that I suspect the Mozilla corp of anything untoward, and short of omitting it entirely, I can't think of a better way to to say what they appear to be saying.

All the same, it's a bit semantically null, innit? Where's the point of a FAQ if you fill it with meaningless platitudes?

Positive and negative.

[hkmwbz]

This could be a good thing if Mozilla wants to grow, although I am puzzled by Mitchell's comment that they won't be pursuing a profit. Is there such a thing as a non-profit corporation? Surely, they will need to turn a profit to bring in money for the Mozilla Foundation?

One might also wonder how everyone who has contributed to Mozilla's development because it was a project they believed in will feel. A lot of people have contributed to Mozilla through the years, and now Mozilla is going to profit?

In the end, I guess this is what it takes to take the battle with Microsoft to the next step.

But will Mozilla now lose the funding it receives from Google, IBM, Sun, and so on? Until now, hasn't Mozilla simply received donations from these and other large companies who didn't want to see Mozilla die?

Will this help

[C_Kode]

Fix the issues with filtering/moving emails around in your folders in Thunderbird? I'm getting close to being forced to abandon Thunderbird. I send an email and I cannot copy it into the sent folder (and I must have copies of my sent email) The filters stop functioning and I have to shutdown and restart Thunderbird to even manually copy the email to the correct folder.

Don't take this as a flame, I've used Netscape Messenger/Thunderbird since around 1997, but I am starting to have way to many problems... I've seen bug reports about this for several years now, yet no fix gets released. (Thunderbird hardly gets any new releases compared to Firefox)

My programming skills are minimal otherwise I would try myself to fix it...

Anyone know of another email client? (mainly for windows, Eudora, Pegasus, and Outlook) are either not options or I do not like them.

I like Thunderbird... It's a shame that it's such a task to use with this problem...

Re:MHO about possible IPO

[Haydn Fenton]

I'm no business or legal expert, and I'm not completely sure about what IPO means exactly.

Does becoming 'IPOed' that mean big mean Microsoft can come along and buy the whole thing? Or does IPO mean the company offers shares to be bought, but keeps a significant amount for itself to prevent that kind of thing from happening?

All this stuff aside, a Corporation sounds like it's much more capable of kicking ass than a Foundation, even if there's no real difference.

Re:Will this help

[jurt1235]

You can help in the following way: Instead of your time, you can use a small bonus for the person who solves the problem. That way you and the community both benefit from it.

Re:MHO about possible IPO

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but when the Mozilla Corporation and Foundation having so many ties, how do we know that the Foundation is really looking out for it's best interests instead of just providing cover for the Corporation? The Foundation doesn't look independent enough.

Already happened

[Anonymous Coward]

If the Mozilla Corporation should go wrong, the Foundation can just re-start to release the official Firefox/Thunderbird versions themselves, including any improvements dome by the Corporation in the mean time. That's the power of Open Source: Even if the corporation gets evil, it cannot suddenly remove the code. The only possible weak point would be the trademark, but I hope the trademark rights remain at the Foundation.

Funny, this has already happened to an extent. When the Mozilla foundation decided to cut the Mozilla suite (the project that got Mozilla to where it is today), many longtime users felt as though they had been stabbed in the back in favor of a wider, Firefox-oriented audience, and started the Seamonkey project. They aren't allowed to use the Mozilla name or icons anymore, now that the foundation owns them. You can google the project and see what their reasons are for forking.

Everyman = google-watch.org.

[hkmwbz]

"And it's not like Google's first result is always the best. Recent studies show wide disparity between various engines for the top results."

Exactly. You are Daniel Brandt, the guy behind google-watch.org [google-watch-watch.org], and you created GW because your insignificant site which no one linked to wasn't ranked as #1 on Google for searches on people in the U.S. administration.

You were pissed off, and decided to have your revenge. Daniel is your name, Slander and lies against Google is your game.

You basically have no credibility what so ever when you talk about Google.

"Moreover, all the several-year-old Google bombs still work."

These are exceedingly lame. They are terms hardly anyone uses or links to, so it's no wonder Google doesn't have any high-ranking links for those. The only value of "Google bombing" is for the fun of it.

Re:Something doesn't make sense

[Brendan Eich]

There's no reason that that a non-profit corporation can't have revenues. In fact, they can have massive revenues. The profits just can't accrue to private profits.

The issue with non-profits in the US is not about accruing "private profits" but about the type of activities pursued for the non-profit's "public benefit purpose". "Acting as if" we were a for-profit entity is a problem, even if we never accrued private profits and never distributed them somehow to the owners (in this case, the Mozilla Foundation is the sole owner).

So even if we act to further our public-benefit purpose, and distribute funds as grants, or otherwise avoid profit-taking, if our action in the market and with partners resembles for-profit commercial activity, we may lose our non-profit status. That is something the Foundation does not want to risk.

This is the main reason for the reorganization.

Yes, it means Firefox is making money, and in ways that may put us in the position of "acting as if" we are a for-profit commercial entity.

No, we will not start charging for Firefox or any of our other free (beer and speech) products.

/be

The End

[_aa_]

This is outrageous. There's absolutly no law against non-profit organizations seeking, earning, and keeping revenue. The real story here is that Mozilla has become profitable, and is moving so that those in control can take advantage of it. This is not how successful open source projects should behave. They should not beg for donations so they can advertize (see spreadfirefox), and any profits they earn should go back into the project, then to the developers, and then into the open source community.

Let me preface my next statement by saying that I love and use firefox exclusivly, but it's time for firefox to fork so it stops fucking up the mozilla foundation.