At 07:46 AM 26/04/2003 +0100, Lester Caine wrote:

>I suppose we could claim that this was a backdown on
>mozilla.org's part, but the truth is probably that nothing
>has changed.

Nothing has changed. The reworked branding page isn't a backdown - it's
the statement they *should* have put out instead of letting "Mozilla
browser renamed to Firebird" get blatted all over the web. The text is
peppered with the word "Firebird", referring to both the product and the
project. Publicly, Mozilla actually hasn't changed anything yet - hasn't
reversed the decision to take our mark, hasn't clarified the stance
expressed by Asa Dotzler and his groupies, that merging our name into their
product was a proper thing to do to another open source project.

We could be optimistic and look at it as a move towards *discouraging* the
use of "Firebird". It gives them the opportunity to let their PR blunder
slide silently out into the darkness from which it never should have
emerged in the first place.

They haven't fixed the fundamental *legal* problem of the trademark,
viz. if it's **not OK** for them to use "Phoenix", why do they consider
it's OK to keep using Firebird, which is legally not theirs for the
taking? They weren't careful enough about Phoenix and they got bad counsel
about Firebird. The fix is yet to come.

The branding statement does nothing to clear their legal obligation to stop
using our mark, but it actually goes backwards on the ethical issue of
confusing and diluting the brand image of a non-competing open source
project. Brendan asked us to see it as a blunder, yet, a week later, here
we have Mozilla affirming that Firebird is it.

We haven't got anywhere until we receive a written undertaking from the
folk actually responsible for dealing with the problem, to promise to fix
it quickly so that the association of "mozilla [browser]" with "firebird"
gets backed out completely.

The longer they delay, the worse it gets for our Firebird brand
identity. It's still all over the place in the mozilla.org website and in
a list of other places. Nothing has filtered through to their community.
See here:
http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/index.php?c=4

As recently as yesterday, this message was posted at
http://texturizer.net/firebird/, the "Firebird Help site":

"Name Change Not Yet Finalized
Just because the new brand for Phoenix is Firebird™, that doesn't mean it's
all settled yet. As you have already noticed, this site has been renamed
Mozilla Firebird Help. This just reflects one of several possibilities for
the name of the browser. Right now the most likely name is either Mozilla
Firebird or Firebird Browser.
Note that although Ben Goodger recently renamed the application strings,
his choice is not confirmed to be the final name. In fact, this recent
checkin indicates that the name is going to be Mozilla Firebird. Stay tuned..."

The site itself is still using the TM mark on the world "Firebird":

"Welcome to Mozilla Firebird Help! This is a site dedicated to Mozilla
Firebird™, the new web browser from Mozilla.org. The site is intended for
users who want to learn how to configure Mozilla Firebird to fit their needs."

and here:
http://www.gnuarts.com/firebird/

+ other places. (just Google it..)

For now, call the branding statement "spin" if that's how you see it. In
this forum, Brendan Eich has categorically denied that Moz has been cynical
or arrogant in making its rebranding decision. I really want to believe
him, for the good of the open source movement. So, for now, I call it
"housekeeping" that they needed to do, to set up a starting-place for
discussion. Noblesse oblige. I await Mozilla's next actions to speak for
the organisation's official attitude towards it's current unsolved problem.

I'm writing this as "me" but I want to tell you that we (Firebird Admin,
Foundation and IBPhoenix) have asked the Mozilla leaders, in a formal
letter to Brendan Eich and Mitchell Baker, to get together with us, and
we've offered to help them resolve it. We'll let you know when they reply.

regards,
Helen