Mozilla steps in to stop Firefox extension war

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 5 May 2009 at 08:42

Mozilla is set to change its policy on third-party extensions, after an ugly dispute between the makers of two of Firefox's most popular add-ons.

The matter came to a head following a row between the makers of NoScript (an extension that pre-emptively blocks script from running in the browser) and AdBlock Plus (which, as the name suggests, hides adverts).

NoScript's developer, Giorgio Maone, took umbrage at AdBlock's attempts to block adverts on his website, which are used to fund the development of his extension.

Maone made several attempts to evade the AdBlock filters by modifying his website, but was thwarted each time.

He finally snapped and made surreptitious changes to his NoScript code that disabled parts of AdBlock Plus, wreaking havoc for users of both extensions.

After being caught red-handed, Maone reverted the changes made to NoScript and issued a grovelling apology. "I screwed up. Big time," Maone writes on his blog. "Not just with Adblock Plus users but with the Mozilla community at large."

"I did something extremely wrong, which I will regret forever. I abused the power and wasted the enormous trust capital gained by the NoScript add-on through the years to prevent Adblock Plus from blocking stuff on four internet domains of mine, without asking an explicit preemptive user consent," he adds.

"This is absolutely inexcusable. Something I would never conceive again for the life of me."

Policy changes

The issue has prompted Mozilla to propose a new code of conduct for third-party extensions. The policy demands that add-ons must clearly state what changes are made to the code, that all changes must be opt-in and that uninstalling the add-on will restore the user's original setttings.

Mozilla says the new rules will prevent a repeat of the NoScript/AdBlock war. "Surprises can be appropriate in many situations, but they are not welcome when user security, privacy, and control are at stake," the organisation states.

Extensions remain both Firefox's biggest asset and liability, with extension conflicts often blamed for performance issues with the browser.

Mozilla has explored the possibility of validating extensions, but claims it hasn't got the resources to manage the process in a time- and cost-effective manner.