--- In Firebird-general@yahoogroups.com, Helen Borrie <helebor@t...>
wrote:

>
> Do complain. Be polite and civil about it, though, and don't make

jokes -

I wrote to pclinuxonline. I hope everything in my remarks is
accurate, logical and polite.

>>

I regret to inform you, that your front page contains an editorial
mistake. You have a link to an article called "Introduction to
Firebird", but this article is actually about the Mozilla browser
which is code-named 'Firebird' (http://pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?
name=News&file=article&sid=7864). According to Mozilla's branding
statement, this is a name that is only intended for Mozilla's
internal use.
The mistakes caused by the Mozilla team in allowing this internal
name to become publicly used are damaging a much smaller (but no less
important) open source project, namely Firebird database. Firebird
has registered this name as a trademark, and it is an infringement of
this trademark to refer to the Mozilla browser as 'Firebird'.

Furthermore, I noticed that in the only reference to the Firebird
database that was found on your site it is being mistakenly
called "Firebird-SQL" (http://pclinuxonline.com/modules.php?
name=News&file=article&sid=7700). I assume that this is because the
writer of that piece was trying to distinguish between the database
and the browser by re-naming the database. This is an understandable
attempt at removing confusion, but it would be better if you could
ensure that any reference to the Mozilla browser was not simply
to 'Firebird', and that the database was simply referred to
as 'Firebird'.

We supportors of the Firebird database project are concerned at this
failure by Mozilla and others to respect the Firebird trademark. The
problem caused by the Mozilla team in this regard is leading to the
obscuration of the existence of the Firebird database project.
Already there is documentation of confusion at major Linux
distributions such as Mandrake, where users have requested that
Firebird be included as a RPM, only to be told that there is already
a RPM for Mozilla. This has resulted in there being no RPM of
Firebird provided with that distribution.

Firebird does not have the high profile that Mozilla has (it does not
have subsidies from AOL that Mozilla has to market itself).
However, it is an important open source project (with more than 1
million downloads since it began).

Please could you correct these mistakes, for the sake of journalistic
precision and the philosophy of the open source movement. Just
because the Mozilla project has a higher profile and more marketing
money, it should not be allowed to obscure the existence of a pre-
existing open source project.

Thanks

Bernard Devlin
<<