Not for profit, my rear.

Get a load of this:

Mozilla at the Caltrain terminus in San Francisco – this tripe is everywhere in the station.
G1, kit lens @25mm, 1/25, f/5, ISO320.

Why, I am asking myself, does a web browser software maker obliterate nearly every square inch of the Caltrain terminus at Townsend and 4th in San Francisco – I mean walls, floors and hanging flags so that you can no longer see the station clock – with the most tasteless ads proclaiming its genius and decency, never missing an opportunity to scream at you in foul orange that they are a ‘not for profit’. This is just about as credible were the US Defense Department proclaiming it exists for the greater good of the future of mankind. (Hint: It exists because of oil).

The reality must be that Mozilla is onto such a good thing that it has decided to blow tons of its profits on costly advertising to grow its net income further because, hey, you and I are paying for it. Here’s how it works. The Mozilla Foundation owns the Firefox product and has the not-for-profit status. The Mozilla Corporation makes a lot of money on the back of this stance. I’m not privy to their financials but would not be surprised to find that there are hefty ‘administrative’ or ‘management’ fees or some such tripe being paid by the Foundation to the Corporation, making sure the Foundation makes no net income. Hey, it’s a not for profit suddenly, both as organized (under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code) and as reflected in its financial statements. Likely the Corporation then pays out all net income as compensation to its senior people, the CEO of which sits on both Boards …. so you get to say you are ‘not for profit’ while living like Riley. And pay zero corporation tax into the bargain. Meanwhile you can proclaim to the whole world that the code monkeys writing the software are paid peanuts, and that’s true.

More about their structure here. By making Google the default browser in Firefox, Google ponies up likely north of $100mm a year to Mozilla – details here. Why bother with this money shuffling when you could simply overpay your executives from one corporate entity? Because excess compensation in a not-for-profit attracts far greater scrutiny from the tax authorities than any corporation’s pay check does. Have you seen the pay of US banksters’ recently? Has the IRS required a return of any of that egregious pay? No. And because there are millions naïve enough to buy the ‘not-for-profit’ claim, they use Firefox for that reason – meaning they are unwittingly suckered into using Google for search – and allow Mozilla to get more money from Google for directing you to Google’s advertising.

Meanwhile, by all means use Firefox if it works for you (the latest Version 4 has almost caught up to Safari as regards speed, having been in the slow lane for ever, and its use of fonts still needs work). But don’t use it in the mistaken belief that related advertising dollars are making their way to feed the world’s poor.

Moral of the story? Wherever Google is involved, get your BS meter out. Google’s culture of theft is deeply ingrained and spreads its tentacles to those who do business with it, like Mozilla.

This nonsense is everywhere in the Caltrain station.
“We believe in principle over profit”. Excuse me while I vomit.

….you can’t even see the station clock.

So if you find one of your favorite train stations suddenly obliterated in puke orange, sanctimonious, self-serving advertising, smell the rat, and don’t buy the message. Your city and nation is being robbed of millions of tax dollars and you and I pay the shortfall. Welcome to the Hall of Shame, Mozilla.

And as the next picture shows, they make a Freudian slip and admit it!

Posters on the floor!