This marks the first time we’ve come together with these giants of the Internet on any policy issue. The decision to inform legislators and users of our serious reservations with SOPA was a no-brainer and fell into place quickly over just a few days of discussion. We believe The Stop Online Piracy Act threatens our ability as an industry to continue to offer our many important software and web services to the hundreds of millions of users who rely on them, as well as the many employees and developers we support to innovate these technologies.

For Mozilla, we see this as a fight for the future of the Internet. Mozilla’s General Counsel, Harvey Anderson, blogged a few days ago that if the legislation were to pass into law it would likely chill free expression online, expose Internet users and companies to undue liability, be abused by plaintiffs, and still ultimately fail in its goal to thwart piracy.

We encourage you to take action today and tell your Congressional representatives how you feel about SOPA!

Here’s a copy of our letter to Congressional leaders:

Dear Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Grassley, Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Conyers:

The undersigned Internet and technology companies write to express our concern with legislative measures that have been introduced in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives, S. 968 (the “PROTECT IP Act”) and H.R. 3261 (the “Stop Online Piracy Act”).

We support the bills’ stated goals — providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign “rogue” websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting.  Unfortunately, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites.  We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation’s cybersecurity. We cannot support these bills as written and ask that you consider more targeted ways to combat foreign “rogue” websites dedicated to copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting, while preserving the innovation and dynamism that has made the internet such an important driver of economic growth and job creation.

One issue merits special attention. We are very concerned that the bills as written would seriously undermine the effective mechanism Congress enacted in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to provide a safe harbor for internet companies that act in good faith to remove infringing content from their sites.  Since their enactment in 1998, the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions for online service providers have been a cornerstone of the U.S. Internet and technology industry’s growth and success.  While we work together to find additional ways to target foreign rogue sites, we should not jeopardize a foundational structure that has worked for content owners and Internet companies alike and provides certainty to innovators with new ideas for how people create, find, discuss, and share information lawfully online.

We are proud to be part of an industry that has been crucial to U.S. economic growth and job creation. A recent McKinsey Global Institute Report found that the Internet accounts for 3.4 percent of GDP in the 13 countries that they studied, and, in the U.S., the Internet’s contribution to GDP is even larger. If Internet consumption and expenditure were a sector, its contribution to GDP would be bigger than energy, agriculture, communication, mining, or utilities. In addition, the Internet industry has increased productivity for small and medium-sized businesses by 10%.  We urge you not to risk either this success or the tremendous benefits these new platforms have brought to hundreds of millions of Americans and people around the world.

We stand ready to work with the Congress to develop targeted solutions to addressing the problem of foreign rogue websites.

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely,

AOL
eBay
Facebook
Google
LinkedIn
Mozilla
Twitter
Yahoo!
Zynga

Additional links to the bill and other commentary can be found below:

• HR 3261 – SOPA Bill Text
• CDT – Growing Chorus of Opposition to “Stop Online Piracy Act”
• Professors’ Letter in Opposition to “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011” (PROTECT‐IP Act of 2011, S. 968)
• CNET -  SOPA: Hollywood’s latest effort to turn back time
• CNET – US Government Also a Villian in piracy act story
• EFF – SOPA: Hollywood Finally Gets A Chance to Break the Internet
• Corporate Law Report – SOPA? E-PARASITE Act? Whatever It’s Called, Here’s A Primer on the Latest in Protect IP
• Techdirt - An Open Letter To Chris Dodd: Silicon Valley Can’t Help Hollywood If You First Cripple It With Bad Regulation

More and more people are looking at badges to show skills and achievements online. Mozilla is currently developing its own badges for things like Javascript courses at the School of Webcraft. We’ve also talked to groups as diverse as 4H, NASA, PBS, P2PU, Intel and the US Department of Education, all of whom plan to develop digital badges.

Open Badges is a response to this trend: an open specification and APIs that provide any organization the basic building blocks they need to offer badges in a standard, interoperable manner.

If we’re successful, the benefits to learners will be tremendous. Open Badges will let you gather badges from any site on the internet, combining them into a story about what you know and what you’ve achieved. There is a real chance to create learning that works more like the web.

Also, this sort of badge collection may eventually become a central part of online reputation, helping you get a job, find collaborators and build prestige. This is another reason Mozilla wants to build an open badge format: it can show the real potential of open identity tools on the web.

Released today, the first Open Badges beta was developed by Brian Brennan and Erin Knight, with support from Dan Mills and Ben Adida in Mozilla Labs. It includes a badge format spec, APIs and reference implementation for ‘badge backpack’ software. It also builds on other Mozilla open identity technology like Browser ID. Our first implementation will be as part of School of Webcraft, an initiative Mozilla runs jointly with P2PU.

Today’s announcement coincides with the launch of a $2 million badges for learning competition funded by MacArthur Foundation and run by HASTAC. Earlier this week, MacArthur approved a $1 million grant to Mozilla to work on the Open Badges Infrastructure, a platform that will be used by all winners of the competition.

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, MacArthur Foundation VP Programs Julia Stasch and Mozilla Executive Director Mark Surman spoke at the competition launch in Washington DC earlier today. Here is the MacArthur Foundation press release.

The GNOME Foundation and Mozilla are committed to open source, open standards, and open formats. Both organizations and their contributors contribute to numerous projects to ensure an open Web and open desktop platform for all users. Part of that effort is working hard to ensure users with physical disabilities are able to make use of a free desktop and Web browser.

“The GNOME Foundation’s commitment to accessibility improves the desktop and Internet experience for millions of people, and Mozilla is proud to support this work,” said Mitchell Baker, Chair of the Mozilla Foundation.

Firefox 3.6 is more than 20 percent faster than Firefox 3.5 and includes extensive under the hood work to improve performance for everyday Web tasks such as email, uploading photos, social networking, and more. It also delivers new features like customizable browser themes called Personas, a ground-breaking Plugin updater, improved JavaScript performance, and enhancements to familiar favorites like the Awesome Bar for a better, more personal Web experience.

Firefox 3.6 was built by Mozilla’s global community of passionate contributors, including thousands of experienced developers, security experts, localization and support communities, and hundreds of thousands of active testers. More than 350 million users worldwide enjoy Firefox’s fast, secure browsing experience and unparalleled customization.

What’s new in Firefox 3.6:

Below are some of the coolest features of Firefox 3.6:

• Personas: Personalize the look of your Firefox by selecting new themes called Personas in a single click and without a restart
• Plugin Updater: To keep you safe from potential security vulnerabilities, Firefox will now detect out of date plugins
• Stability improvements: Firefox 3.6 significantly decreased crashes caused by third party software – all without sacrificing our extensibility in any way
• Form Complete: When filling out an online form, Firefox suggests information for fields based on your common answers in similar field
• Performance: Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time
• Open Video and Audio: With the world’s best implementation of HTML 5 audio and video support, now video can be displayed full screen and supports poster frames

What’s New Under the Hood for Developers

• Support for the latest HTML5 specification, including the File API for local file handling
• Font Support: In addition to OpenType and TrueType fonts, 3.6 now supports the new Web Open Font Format (WOFF)
• CSS gradients: Supports linear and radial CSS gradients which allow for a smoother transition between colors
• Device orientation: Firefox 3.6 exposes the orientation of the laptop or device to Web pages

How to get Mozilla Firefox 3.6:

Firefox 3.6 is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in more than 70 languages – more platforms and languages than any other browser! You can download Firefox 3.6 at www.firefox.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

For screenshots and logos, visit http://www.mozilla.com/press/images.html.

For a video tour of Firefox 3.6, visit http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/video/?video=whatnew-3.6.

Further details on Firefox 3.6 features can be found in the Reviewer’s Guide.

For more information about Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and how it provides a better and faster online experience, visit www.firefox.com.

Web developers are encouraged to check out the Firefox 3.6 for developers page and the full release notes.

For more information, visit the FAQ.

Mozilla Advances the Web with Firefox 3.5

Major update to browser delivers significant performance improvements, privacy enhancements, support for new Web standards, and greater customization options

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. – June 30, 2009 – Mozilla, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Internet, today released Firefox® 3.5, a major update to its popular, free and open source Web browser. Coming one year after the launch of the critically acclaimed Firefox 3, Firefox 3.5 introduces cutting-edge features, as well as new support for a wide variety of Web standards.

Firefox 3.5 is the best performing browser Mozilla has ever released and delivers radically improved JavaScript performance, a new Private Browsing mode, native support for open video and audio, and Location Aware Browsing. The newest version of Firefox is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2 on complex websites. With extensive under-the-hood work to support new technologies, Firefox 3.5 is the most powerful and complete modern browser and helps upgrade the Web experience.

Firefox 3.5 was built through Mozilla’s global, open source development process. The Mozilla community comprises thousands of passionate contributors, including experienced developers, security experts, localization and support communities in more than 60 countries, and tens of thousands of active testers. With more than 300 million active users, Firefox is the only popular Web browser created by a non-profit organization.

“So much is happening on the Web right now, it’s a great time for browsers. Firefox 3.5 brings together the most innovative Web technologies and delivers them in the most complete and powerful modern browser,” said John Lilly, CEO, Mozilla.

What’s New in Firefox 3.5:

Firefox 3.5 makes surfing the Web easier and more enjoyable with exciting new features and platform updates that allow Web developers to create the next generation of Web content. Native support for open video and audio, private browsing, and support for the newest Web technologies will enable richer, more interactive online experiences.

Performance. Firefox 3.5 includes the powerful new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which delivers unprecedented performance with today’s complex Web applications. Firefox 3.5 is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2.

Open Video and Audio. Enjoy video and audio content from within your browser, without the need for plugins. Video is a vital part of the modern Web, whether it’s used to communicate, educate, or entertain. Firefox 3.5 delivers the first native integration of audio and video directly into the browser. Now everyone can easily watch open format Ogg Theora videos.

Web developers can use these technologies to design pages that interact with video content in new and exciting ways, offering richer interactive experiences beyond controlling playback and volume.

Privacy Controls. Firefox 3.5 includes features designed to protect your privacy online and provide greater control over your personal data.

While using the new Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.5, nothing you encounter on the Web will be stored from that moment on during your browsing session. Unique to Firefox 3.5, the new Forget this Site feature can remove every trace of a site from your browser. If you want to remove all private data or activity from the past few hours, Clear Recent History, another Firefox-only feature, gives you full control over what stays and what goes.

Location Aware Browsing. Location Aware Browsing saves you time by allowing websites to ask you where you are located. If you choose to share your location with a website, it can use that information to find nearby points of interest and return additional, useful data like maps of your area. It’s all optional – Firefox doesn’t share your location without your permission.

How to get Mozilla Firefox 3.5:

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 is available now for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems as a free download from http://www.getfirefox.com. It is also available in more than 70 languages at: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For screenshots and videos, visit http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/images.html.

For more information about Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and how it provides a better and faster online experience, visit http://www.getfirefox.com.

Press Contact:
press at mozilla dot com ]]> http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2009/06/30/mozilla-advances-the-web-with-firefox-3-5/feed/ 0 http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2009/03/31/mozilla-adds-style-and-star-power-to-firefox-with-new-personas/ http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2009/03/31/mozilla-adds-style-and-star-power-to-firefox-with-new-personas/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:00:14 +0000 Melissa Shapiro http://blog.mozilla.com/?p=1228 Read more]]> Innovative yet easy-to-use browser addition by Mozilla Labs makes changing the look of Firefox a snap

Builds global community of independent designers, and gathers designs from Interscope Geffen A&M including the All American Rejects, Lady Gaga and No Doubt, BCBGMAXAZRIA, the Common Ground Foundation, Cynthia Rowley, Greenpeace, and LIVESTRONG

Mountain View, Calif. – March 31, 2009 – Mozilla, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Internet, today announced the immediate availability of new designs for the Mozilla Firefox web browser by leading fashion, cause, sports and music brands. Personas are free, easy-to-install “skins” for Firefox that make changing the look of the browser as easy as changing a shirt.

Mozilla is expanding the Personas gallery with new cause, sports, fashion and music categories, seeded with new designs from leading brands and gifted designers.

“We wanted to give people an opportunity to reflect their interests, passions, and personality when dressing their browser,” said Chris Beard, chief innovation officer for Mozilla. “Personas also turn Firefox into a canvas for both independent and established designers to showcase their art for a worldwide audience.”

First introduced in late 2007, the Mozilla Labs Personas project has attracted hundreds of designs from a growing community of artists and designers. Anyone can create and submit a design online in a few simple steps, and designs can then be shared with friends and the broader community. The goal of the project from its inception has been to enable people to easily make their browsing experience more fun and personal.

Today, Mozilla is releasing personas from the following brands, organizations and artists at GetPersonas.com:

• Interscope Geffen A&M artists:
  • All American Rejects
  • Lady Gaga
  • No Doubt
• BCBGMAXAZRIA, a fashion powerhouse that has evolved into one of the hottest names in the fashion industry today.
• The Common Ground Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment and development of urban youth, created by Grammy award winning hiphop artist, actor and children’s author Lonnie Rashid Lynn, known as “Common”.
• Cynthia Rowley, the namesake company of the award-winning designer, whose collection of clothing, accessories, books and more is sold in her own stores and others all over the world.
• Greenpeace, the leading independent campaigning organization that “bears witness” to environmental destruction in a peaceful manner.
• LIVESTRONG, an organization that is empowering cancer survivors and advocates in the global fight against cancer and raising awareness about the LIVESTRONG Global Cancer Campaign.

Aaron Foreman, head of digital solutions for Interscope Geffen A&M says, “It’s great for fans to be able to keep their favorite bands in their Firefox browser, no matter what web site they visit. No Doubt, Lady Gaga and All American Rejects fans are very dedicated and loyal. They’ll love it.”

“Giving people the ability to show their passion for Greenpeace through Firefox is an innovative approach to blending technology and people’s desire to protect the planet,” says Daniel Kessler, press officer at Greenpeace. “We’re proud to partner with Mozilla in this effort.”

All of these Personas and many more are immediately available for free download at: www.getpersonas.com

Press Contact:
press at mozilla dot com