This policy has zero to do with Pocket if you actually read it. It's about changing the user's search engine and homepage. Unless of course you wanted to get in a completely unrelated jab at Pocket again because reasons.
Get over Pocket. There's no closed source code included. The open source code that integrates with Pocket is never executed due to lazy loading if you don't specifically use Pocket. No money changed hands. It was implemented because users had been asking for the functionality for years and Mozilla determined that it made more sense to partner with the best in breed provider of the service rather than reinvent the service and support it on an ongoing basis themselves. You can right-click and remove it if you don't want it.
I actually pulled down the Firefox nightly code and removed both the Pocket and the Telefonica crap. Its not that complicated, however, removing it from each update is a pain, so I stopped. So it can be done, which is the point of Open Source I believe.
This policy was created in 2009 in response to the controversy when NoScript started messing around with ABP and broke functionality so that ads would display on the NoScript developer's website.
Wow, thank you for posting that. Very informative. The post and the NoScript reply [1] both raise some interesting points about how to compensate plugin authors for their hard and continued work that seem like they're still not addressed six years later. I have never really stopped to consider either compensating plugin for their work and I rely on them daily.
I doubt it, this blog post is 6 years old. Mozilla no longer have the same beliefs in this area, clearly. Just look at Pocket integration and the recent Yahoo! search engine change.
Get over Pocket. There's no closed source code included. The open source code that integrates with Pocket is never executed due to lazy loading if you don't specifically use Pocket. No money changed hands. It was implemented because users had been asking for the functionality for years and Mozilla determined that it made more sense to partner with the best in breed provider of the service rather than reinvent the service and support it on an ongoing basis themselves. You can right-click and remove it if you don't want it.