“In the discussion about the best way to manage the Mozilla trademarks, the problem of sites charging people to download Firefox is often mentioned. However, not everyone has come across such a site. For your ediification, I present ‘A Tour Of A “Pay to Download Firefox” Site’, with detailed analysis and screenshots. You’ll be pleased to hear we have recently been having some success using trademark law with preliminary injunctions and domain name disputes against such sites.”
I’m trying but it’s hard to feel sympathetic for folk who whip out their credit card before using their brain. I just Googled Firefox and in the first three pages I couldn’t find a pay for Firefox site – is this difficult??
I can feel sympathy for folk duped by bogus AVs but this is just plain stupid.
Edited 2009-10-20 16:52 UTC
These are people’s moms and grandmoms who get spam email about FireFox.
They hear their sons or grandsons talking about it so they whip out their credit card to pay for it.
The nice thing about the internet is that you can play the numbers. The idiots will find you.
That cannot believe that software is free. They pay for Games, For Office, for Windows, for Anti-Virus, for…
So, I;d think they expect to get Firefox for a hefty sum, with its tremendous reputation.
Its just to bad that many people just don’t take the time to care.
But not here in Germany. 🙂
“I can’t see software, why should I pay for it?” is a common attitude, even in educational or corporate settings – I’ve seen it myself.
Yes… obviously, that’s the reason of many (the most?) problems across the Internet, such as viruses, spam, data espionage…
This behaviour is forced by the strong misbelief that “the computer will know what he does”. Furthermore, there seem to be people who judge the computer’s “intelligence” higher than their own one’s (allthoug their own intelligence must be high as a mountain because they own a computer); the PC isn’t only personalized, it’s personified, and that’s why it’s an authority that you have to trust. Of course, there’s no difference between the PC, the Internet, a website, the desktop and “Explorer”…
No, seriously. If the computer says: “Enter your credit card number here”, there are lots of people willing to enter their credit card number here, just to see the dancing elephants or the squeaking squirrels.
It hasn’t need to be a browser download. It can be a “free” service that does a pupil’s homework, lets mommy download cookie recipes and daddy to play a nice game of poker. This has to be done *now*, so entering some personal data is done very fast, but the contract (“by signing in to our service, you enter a 6 months contract with 15,99 Euro per month, to be paid right after signing in” or the like) isn’t even read. Afterwards, “victims” start crying out loud in german TV shows.
The most important thing is that thinking (or just plain reading) takes time. Users don’t have time. They want the result, and they want it now. It is that simple.
nt
So, people who might be older and not technologically inclined are simply idiots? I would imagine then that some of you are also experts in the automotive field, health industry, banking, basically everything?
Sorry but the arrogance displayed by geeks that everyone else is an idiot is downright ludicrous. Especially considering that most tech geeks seem to be the most clueless individuals I have ever met when involving anything outside their little geekdom (and yes, that does include girls).
Fact is we simply can not all become experts in every facet of life, nor do most people even have the time or interest in doing so. Another fact is that in this world we still have a lot of people who have zero access to any technology, even the most rudimentary that we all take for granted.
Everyone has a blind spot when it comes to suffering fools that lack knowledge they deem to be common sense.
It’s human nature and occasionally even cripples the most humble among us.
Especially when they are being used to bolster a rather thinly stretched argument supporting a problematic trademark policy. And that *was* the real purpose of the article, in case anyone failed to notice.
BTW, my mother is sick with cancer. PM me if you want to buy the genuine Rolex she gave me for graduation. We need the money for the life-saving drugs.
Edited 2009-10-20 18:56 UTC
If you give me your bank account number, my Nigerian associates will be happy to send money for your mom’s treatment.
I don’t think it has something to do with age, but with lazyness (to think or even to read). This is a modern habit quite familiar even among young people, so I think it is present across all ages.
The strange thing is that even seen academic people and versatile engineers fail in the field of applied logic and educated considerations when it’s about a PC, but are fantastic brain acrobats within their field of work.
Well, I think this accusation is a bit generic.
This is quite possible, but football hero Joe Q. Sixpack doesn’t keep the Internet running. 🙂
Of course that is no excuse for treating other people unpolitely, poking fun at them or even insulting them. You always have to see the difference between established stereotypes (“the geek”) and a real person. For example, I know several geeks who are such kind persons, or goths who are very polite, allthough the stereotypes the society expresses abouth them (“geek = ugly acne face, goth = satanic blood drinker”) seem to suggest that they *have to behave* differently than they actually do.
So *that’s* a honest statement.
But please see the logical implications: If a person is not willing to invest time and brain in a certain action, nobody can be made responsible if this person fails in this action due to missing abilities (here: spending time and using the brain).
Of course, nobody can be a master of the universe, so people get specialized on specific topics. That’s nothing bad per se. But is is important *not* to switch the brain off when leaving work. And it’s always a good idea to employ common sense.
I think those people are not the target audience to pay for Firefox. “I do need a com-poo-tah for this? I don’t want one, I just want the Firefox.” 🙂
I don’t have much knowledge about any of those things, but I tend to research pretty much anything I spend money on. If you don’t, then yeah…. you’re pretty much an idiot, or else very naive on how the world works.
I’ve seen many of those kind of sites for Open Office as well.