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Way to butcher the quote. In full it has nearly the opposite meaning and it's far more intriguing -

  I believe that Mozilla can make progress in privacy, 
  but leadership needs to recognize that current advertising
  practices that enable "free" content are in direct conflict 
  with security, privacy, stability, and performance concerns 
  -- and that Firefox is first and foremost a user-agent, not 
  an industry-agent.



I don't see how that's opposite


The author's point is threefold:

1) Firefox should be software that serves its computer user's interests.

2) The Mozilla corporation is pressured (to whatever degree) to turn Firefox into software that serves the entertainment and advertising and surveillance industry's interests.

3) Sometimes Mozilla bends to industry interests rather than user interests. This is a bad thing.

When you excerpted that quote, you changed the author's statement into:

"Firefox serves the interests of computer users, rather than industry titans."

Understand? :)


#2 comes from your own mind or other sources (DRM standards), not from the quoted material.


#2 comes directly from the quoted material:

"[Mozilla's] leadership needs to recognize that current advertising practices that enable "free" content are in direct conflict with security, privacy, stability, and performance concerns..."

Not to be crass, but read between the lines. All statements have context. That one sits in the context of a world where browser makers have spent many years removing infoleaks from their browsers, much to the chagrin of advertisers and surveillers.


Conflict arises because content isn't truly free. Someone pays of their free time or gets paid to produce by advertising or subscribers. Tools that deliver the content while bypassing payment will drive payment elsewhere or erode the incentive to produce.




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