Mozilla Tells Homeland Security To Screw Off. Questions Plugin Removal Request.
All to often we woefully read articles about people or companies rolling over to this generations greatest annoyance and corporate disease — the RIAA. So entrenched in the U.S. government is the RIAA (and similar organizations) that any law they want passed can make it through political red tap thanks to back room dealings that are witheld from the public and continuous lobbying dollars. Part of this new age cancer’s “enforcement” is being increasingly handled by the department of Homeland Security.
Getting to today’s story, the department of Homeland Security has sent a letter to Mozilla asking demanding that the company remove a plugin called “MAFIAAfire” that automatically re-routes users who visit a website/domain that is currently seized by ICE to alternate domains. Naturally, ICE wants this plugin removed as they say it circumvents domain seizure controls. Mozilla, however, didn’t just rollover and say “OK”. Though they didn’t just say “No” either. They did even better — they sent a lengthy response with 11 questions asking for detailed reasons, court rulings, specific laws that are being broken by keeping MAFIAAfire up, etc. It’s Mozilla going above and beyond to protect basic human rights of consumers and not just letting the government walk all over them.
Expect such stories to increase in the coming years as cyber regulations get more strict, RIAA-like corporations increasingly guiding government policies and practices, and consumers start fighting back.
