"something MetaLab doesn't like"? That's a really soft euphemism to use in place of "use their images and design on mockups of a product after rejecting their bid to do images and design for that product".
Granted, MetaLab could have chosen a better approach. But don't act like they don't have darn good reason to be upset.
The images that were used for the mockups on Mozilla's semi-public wiki were simply screenshots/mocks done by Mozilla that look like an entirely unrelated Metalabs design. Mozilla didn't get mocks of FlightDeck from them, turn them down and then use it behind their backs.
They probably just had some intern do a rough functional mockup in the same style and the kid went too far... Really, they took it down instantly and there were clearly no bad intentions... What's all the fuss? Why flip out and post on twitter and your blog about it instead of just replying to that email he obviously already had lying around and saying "Yo, you took our design man!" and the guy would have replied "Uh oh! Damn interns!"
I would never work with Metalabs after this, some one on my team makes a boo boo and emails out a screenshot that he hacked together in photoshop and BOOM my reputation is ruined because Metalabs flies off the handle. No thanks.
My argument isn't that they shouldn't be upset. It's that they have handled a situation so poorly that their actions and consequences are worse than what they are originally critiquing!
Mozilla made a mistake by posting images that they shouldn't have posted. If they wanted that design, they should have coughed up the cash and gotten MetaLab to do the work. But publicly shaming a company to try and damage their reputation, including posting private e-mails for the world to see without so much as a courtesy call to the person you have a problem before you distribute a message which may reach hundreds of thousands, or millions of eyes is, at best, horribly short sighted and extraordinarily unprofessional.
So posting someones work you did not pay for in public and using for promotion is ok, complaining about that in public is not ok?
Strange world, indeed.
How are his claims not true? Mozilla posted Metalab's designs on a public wiki page and used them for promotion - after rejecting the design (ie. not paying for it). If you don't want to pay for it, don't use it. That's pretty straightforward ethical behaviour, I would've thought.
MetaLab did no work for Mozilla beyond giving them an estimate for work to be completed. The concept drawing the Mozilla mistakenly posted on their wiki was, by all accounts, a concept that was produced internally at Mozilla.
Granted, MetaLab could have chosen a better approach. But don't act like they don't have darn good reason to be upset.