At 4/17/2003 08:55 PM (Thursday), Brendan Eich wrote:

>I'm looking for a little consistency and understanding.
>
>The uproar here is out of proportion to the facts in evidence. Way
>out. It would help if both sides expressed some understanding. I've done
>so, belatedly and with an apology. What I get back here is not reciprocal.

When the Firbird database name was chosen it was not done with the
knowledge that any other project was ACTIVELY using the name. That decision
has been born out in the 3 years of usage because to my knowledge no other
user of the name has objected and there has been no confusion.

What the Mozilla group did (by its own admission) was choose the name with
full knowledge that another open source project was using the name, as well
as other companies/organizations/people, and took the position that the
Mozilla usage would not cause confusion and not harm the existing usage and
if it did well, tough luck.

In addition there was no serious effort to alert the Firebird database
crowd to this decision. Probably because the objections were anticipated.

I see a world of difference between the two actions. That is why the outcry
of wrongdoing. Furthermore, an apology is one thing - and I fully
sympathize with the position the Mozilla people are in right now - but the
REALLY RIGHT THING TO DO is to at least talk about the possibility of
reversing the decision.