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."

Comments

So.

[PsychicX]

It's not enough that Mozilla, this irresponsible pet owner who constantly loses its pets to suspicious ends, is now making a corporation. Its first pet, Phoenix, just vanished. Its second pet, a fox, got set on fire and presumably died. Its two birds are both in bad shape -- one is on fire and one got hit by lightning.

Would you really invest in such a corporation? How can a dinosaur be trusted to manage a corporation, when it can't even keep its own pets safe??

Strange business plan

[Knx]

The change is mostly a legal/tax thing to avoid the problems of pursuing revenue-generating avenues while remaining a non-profit.

Hmm... This is unusual.

1. Fix this legal/tax thing
2. Avoid the problems of pursuing revenue-generating avenues
3. ???
4. non-profit!

Except...

[Dante Shamest]

Plus there's nothing wrong with making money for all your hard work!

That's what I've been saying for years! =(

-Bill Gates

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).

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 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. After reading Mitchell Baker's blog, 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 (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.

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: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

[maxwell demon]

If the proper binding contracts are not put in place before hand, then we can say good buy to the popup blockers.

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.

Re:MHO about possible IPO

[bunratty]

I do have a BIG problem about IPOing. Once there is stock publicly held, the stock holders value is required to be maximized.

From MozillaZine's article on the Mozilla Corporation:

While the Mozilla Corporation will be a for-profit, the Mozilla Foundation is keen to stress that it is not selling out. The Mozilla Foundation will ultimately control the activities of the Mozilla Corporation and will retain its 100 percent ownership of the new subsidiary. Any profits made by the Mozilla Corporation will be invested back into the Mozilla project. There will be no shareholders, no stock options will be issued and no dividends will be paid. The Mozilla Corporation will not be floating on the stock market and it will be impossible for any company to take over or buy a stake in the subsidiary. The Mozilla Foundation will continue to own the Mozilla trademarks and other intellectual property and will license them to the Mozilla Corporation. The Foundation will also continue to govern the source code repository and control who is allowed to check in.

There's no public stock, so the problem you mention cannot happen.

Re:MHO about possible IPO

[Nytewynd]

Going IPO means your shares are publicly traded, and you have a duty to your shareholders to make money. That can mean that you make decisions based on money rather than what is best for your product. In games, it usually means rushed releases and unfinished products. In software it can mean anything from a rushed release to signing a deal with Gator to include their software in your browser for extra money. That is obviously a worst case scenario.