Mozilla, Softpedia and addons
I just received an email :
Mozilla Balkans info widget, one of your products, has been added to
Softpedia’s database of software programs for the Windows operating system.
It is featured with a description text, screenshots, download links and
technical details on this page:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Internet/Internet-Applications-Addons/Mozilla-Extensions/Mozilla-Balkans-info-widget.shtmlThe description text was created by our editors, using sources such as text
from your product’s homepage, information from its help system, the PAD
file (if available) and the editor’s own opinions on the program itself.“Mozilla Balkans info widget” has been tested in the Softpedia labs using
several industry-leading security solutions and found to be completely
clean of adware/spyware components. We are impressed with the quality of
your product and encourage you to keep these high standards in the future.
Where is the problem?
Is there any deal between Mozilla and Softpedia for sharing untested addons? I don’t think so. The reason developers and users are using AMO website is the security and I definitely don’t want as a developer my addon to be somewhere else and as user I want to be sure that AMO and Mozilla are taking care about boring stuff like … security.
Softpedia has been doing that for a long time, they’re adding any freely available piece of software to their site and probably earning at least thousands of dollars every months via ads. But it’s free software, nobody can really stop them from doing this.
I agree with Robert. I receive similar emails from Softpedia. Its up to security conscious users to authorize downloads from mozilla servers.