Spreading Extensions by localization

Talk about add-ons and extension development.
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

I wouldn't bother asking the Mozilla Foundation for permission to use "BabelZilla"... *zilla names are only a problem thanks to other companies and their associated trademarks. Asa's advice when SeaMonkey was looking for a name was not to use anything ending in the "zilla" suffix.
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Comodo Dragon
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Post by Comodo Dragon »

Cusser wrote:I wouldn't bother asking the Mozilla Foundation for permission to use "BabelZilla"... *zilla names are only a problem thanks to other companies and their associated trademarks. Asa's advice when SeaMonkey was looking for a name was not to use anything ending in the "zilla" suffix.



I had forgot that Mozilla doesn't own the -Zilla trademark, they are only use it thank's to AOL's attack lawyers.

Extract from Godzilla vs. the blog thing
Published: August 14, 2002, 11:52 AM PDT
in news.com
By Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-949804.html

But sources close to Mozilla say that Toho and AOL Time Warner--which owns the intellectual property associated with the Mozilla mascot and brand--have hammered out an agreement that will let the open-source group continue to use the "zilla" name without legal repercussions from Toho.
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

On the other hand, extenzilla gets away with it, but there's not a lot of point asking for permission ;)
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Comodo Dragon
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Post by Comodo Dragon »

Cusser wrote:On the other hand, extenzilla gets away with it


Until the next Godzilla movie
iacchi
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Post by iacchi »

are you sure that there will be such a kind of problems? I mean: zilla is only the end of a word, and not the word itself. Even lindows (even if they decided to change their name in any case) won against Microsoft in a similar situation. And they are both software houses! Here we're talking about the protagonist of a book (because, before being a movie it's a book) and a software site, that doesn't all it's name!

maybe my post is not so easy to understand, but I still have to practice with my english...
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Comodo Dragon
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Post by Comodo Dragon »

iacchi wrote:are you sure that there will be such a kind of problems? I mean: zilla is only the end of a word, and not the word itself. Even lindows (even if they decided to change their name in any case) won against Microsoft in a similar situation. And they are both software houses! Here we're talking about the protagonist of a book (because, before being a movie it's a book) and a software site, that doesn't all it's name!

maybe my post is not so easy to understand, but I still have to practice with my english...


In news.com story Toho was suing someone for using the domain Davazilla. This case is 3 years old and I don't know who won or if it even went to court but at the time AOL considered this a threat.


Lindows had a choice change their name or visit every court room on the planet (the grand legal tour :))
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Post by Seewak »

jooliaan wrote:We're only waiting to be sure that babelzilla will be the definitively choosen name for the project.
Everybody vote for BabelZilla !!! It must be the name ;)


I go to plymouth. I return on August 15th.

Bye
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iosart
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Post by iosart »

It's great to see that this issue is finally getting the much deserved attention.
As an author of several extensions I feel that it is currently very difficult to find and communicate with translators and update them about new versions. Firefox update mechanisms and UMO are also missing some important features that are needed for getting localized versions (and the localized updates) to users.

I've submitted a bug for this a while back (Bug 280385) and it has been closed as "Won't fix".

Some problems with the existing situation:
  1. No way of adding a new locale to existing extension and letting users know about it. Releasing a new version when only locales are changed will force all the users (all locales) to update, which is a hassle for them. Re-releasing under the same version number creates a versioning problem - mirrors can never be sure which package they have.
  2. If all the existing locales are bundled in the same package, it's difficult to release new versions because the author has to wait for all the translators to translate the new version.
  3. Having all the locales bundled in the same XPI makes testing the extension difficult. I believe a better alternative (testing and version management wise) is to have a separate package for each language. UMO, Extension Manager and the proposed project (BabelZilla) should all have the infrastructure for managing the packages.
  4. Very difficult to find translators, coordinate between them, contact them, update them about the new versions etc. For example, if two people contact me separately and tell me that they want to translate the extension into Klingon, what do I tell them? If I tell the first one to go ahead and the second one "thanks, but somebody is already translating into Klingon", there is a chance that the first translator won't come through and in the end there will be no Klingon translation. Another example is a translator that translates a single version and then is no longer available (cannot be contacted). How do I find another translator?

It would be great to see a project that will help with at least some of the above problems. Also, we need to raise the awareness about these issues, so the needed features are added to UMO and the Extension Manager.

I will be more than glad to help identify the problems and define the requirements.
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Luana
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Post by Luana »

MatrixIsAllOver wrote:
prometeo wrote:Regarding the name, we should avoid the -zilla or moz- or whatever, so we'll not incur in MoFo legal dept. ;)
Just my .02€.
Cheers, Giacomo.

I totally agree :)

Sum of the "valid" names :wink:
  • Lion's extensions
  • extensionsl10n
  • The Extension Link
  • extenl10n
  • The Locale Place

Sum of the "risky" names
  • BabelZilla
  • l10nzilla.org


Logically...
goofyFr wrote:Let it be BabelZilla if you want !


But...
Comodo Dragon wrote:Has anyone asked Mozilla Foundation if it's OK to use babelzilla.

Cusser wrote: *zilla names are only a problem thanks to other companies and their associated trademarks. Asa's advice when SeaMonkey was looking for a name was not to use anything ending in the "zilla" suffix.

I agree with your opinions! :)
'BabelZilla' it's a nice name, but it's also risky... :roll:

The better solution is also that simpler one: let's ask to MoFo the authorization ;)
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jooliaan
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Post by jooliaan »

Please, to all:
Stop bother saying to ask an authorization to MoFo tu use *zilla suffix .
It's not risky at all! Many other project already use zilla as end of their names: eXtenZilla, FileZilla, BlogZilla Go!Zilla ChatZilla, QuitomZilla AnnonZilla, ForumZilla, TagZilla, Biet-o-Zilla , ColorZilla, SpiderZilla and so on.. And none of them had to hask any kind of authorization to MoFo!
MoFo doesn't have any right on this suffix as previously explained by Cusser.

So if most of us is agreeing (as seems by looking ath the choices done) on BabelZilla, we'll definitively choose BabelZilla.org as domain.

Ciao :)
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Post by Seewak »

http://babelzilla.org is registered, but not by joolian I presume.
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Post by jooliaan »

not directly by me, but it's registered to be used for this project ;)
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Post by Seewak »

ok, good :)
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BenBasson
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Post by BenBasson »

Excellent stuff... I'm looking forward to getting a couple of my extensions through the system as a test run. When it's ready, someone send me a PM and I'll get something put into the knowledgebase here but hopefully DevMo as well.
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goofyFr
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Post by goofyFr »

Here is a perfect example of what we would like never to happen again ...
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/m ... successful
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