The latest build of Phoenix…ahem, excuse me, Firebird™ Browser, has got me all Pissed Off™.
Right there in the titlebar, there’s a blatantly in-your-face trademark symbol after “Firebird”. Given the fact that these people legally have prior claim to the trademark “Firebird” in relation to a software product, and given the recent protests over the rude and illegal hijacking of the Firebird database’s name by the Mozilla team (and parent company AOL), you’d think they’d at least make the sensible decision to trademark the name “Firebird Browser”, which would have been perfectly legal and would have limited the confusion somewhat. But no, they’ve chosen to call “Firebird” their trademark.
Sadly, while this theft of a trademark is illegal according to international trademark law, the Firebird database team can’t do anything about it without lots of highly paid lawyers, which they can’t afford. And by not defending their trademark, they are essentially giving AOL and Mozilla the legal right to use it. This is the first clear-cut case of trademark dispute that I can think of between two open source projects, and it saddens me that the Mozilla team feels no remorse for their actions and even seems to be gleefully insulting the Firebird database project by putting that stupid ™ in the title bar. I can’t think of a single other software product with a trademark symbol in the title bar. Microsoft doesn’t even do that.
So I’m angry. Mozilla, an open source project I’ve often made minor contributions to and which I’ve used and loved for many years, has basically pissed all over another fine open source project that doesn’t have the corporate backing or funding to fight back. This is the sort of thing big evil corporations do to one another, this is not what free, community-driven software projects should do to each other. It’s a real shame.
Update: It looks like the 20030424 nightly build has gotten rid of all those ugly trademark symbols. Now the title bar contains the text “Mozilla Firebird”. That’s much better. I’m less full of hate now.
Comments
Another take
MySQL? Sure. Oracle? Not living in a cave. PostgreSQL? Yes. Firebird? That's a car, not a database.
If you google for "relational database" today, Firebird is the fourth link, but I really wonder if it would have made the front page two months ago. It's an open source fork of the Borland DBMS. Borland hasn't really been a name in databases in recent times, and neither is Firebird. How many books (paper ones) exist on Firebird administration? Now count the ones on PostgreSQL or MySQL.
This whole debacle has raised both awareness of the Firebird project's existance and sympathy for their cause. I'm guessing they'll gain at least one solid contibuter off of this whole thing, and frankly, that's probably more than just compensation for a name that didn't have any recognition in the first place.
That said, I think Phoenix is a far superior name for a browser. Personal opinion.
Re: Another take
When the Phoenix developers and users were discussing the possible name change, many people pointed out that the name "Firebird" conflicted with an existing open source project, and Asa's response was along the lines of "It doesn't matter, nobody has ever heard of the Firebird database so we can use their name if we feel like it." Then, when the official announcement was made and the uproar began, Asa and the rest of the Phoenix team were completely unapologetic to the concerns of the Firebird SQL people, even to the point of being insulting about it.
In addition to the plain rudeness of it all, there's the fact that what Mozilla is doing is only legal if the Firebird database team chooses not to pursue legal action to defend their trademark. Since they can't afford lawyers, they have no choice but to leave their trademark undefended. This is the sort of underhanded, sneaky tactic that never fails to get the open source community up in arms at Microsoft.
Coincidentally, I had heard of Firebird SQL before this hoopla, and I even played with it a bit and considered using it for a few projects. It's really a good product, and the community behind it is very devoted and generally a good group of people. I used to think the same of the Mozilla project, but now I'm not so sure.
Re: Another take
I don't think thats the point. The point is that the Moz people should have been curtious and made sure that the name wasn't in use. This is too much like blue on blue fire for my liking.