May 9, 2006; 05:56 AM
Mambo lead developer Martin Brampton today announced he was severing
all ties with the Open Source project. His departure — which is eerily
similar to the departure of an entire development team last year —
comes in the wake of him finding himself unable to continue due to
matters of conscience.
Mr Brampton is a respected IT developer,
columnist and keynote speaker, based in the UK. He took over the lead
developer role of the troubled project last September. That appointment
followed the departure of former lead developer Andrew Eddie in the
infamous split and eventual formation of Joomla!
His resignation
from Mambo comes after internal matters had caused him great concern.
"Following the Joomla! split, the Mambo Foundation appeared to take its
role of governing the Mambo project more seriously. Miro International,
the Melbourne software company that held all intellectual property in
Mambo, addressed one of the concerns of former developers by assigning
the copyright in Mambo to the Foundation," Mr Brampton said. "I thought
there was some hope for the future."
In December 2005, Miro
International Pty Ltd, announced that it had transferred the
intellectual property it held in Mambo to the Mambo Foundation. On 4th
April 2006, Ansearch Ltd, an Australian search engine and online media
company, announced to the Australian Stock Exchange that it had entered
into an agreement to buy Mambo Communities Pty Ltd. Mambo Communities
is owned by Mr Peter Lamont, the owner of Miro International Pty Ltd,
which is being voluntarily deregistered, and current President of the
Mambo Foundation.
"This set of events started to set alarm bells
ringing," Mr Brampton said, "particularly when members of the Mambo
community began asking questions on the Mambo Communities forum and
being banned for their trouble."
"Mambo Communities Pty Ltd, the
company under contract of sale to Ansearch Ltd, owns the Mambo forums,
help site, development forge, and latterly, the Mambo Developer
Network," Mr Brampton pointed out. "It also owns domain names. So, when
questions over the ownership of the Mambo name and trademarks arose and
these were met with censorship and banning, I sought the services of an
Intellectual Property lawyer to act on behalf of the Mambo Foundation".
Martin
Brampton was an unofficial member of the Mambo Foundation Board at this
time and sought answers to the questions being raised in the forum. "I
had always asked too many questions and registered my dissatisfaction
at not getting straight answers, which did not endear me to Mr Lamont
and some other Board members".
On 25th April, Martin Brampton
resigned his position on the Mambo Foundation Board. Less than an hour
later, the Foundation finally admitted on the Mambo Communities forum
that it did not yet own the Mambo trademarks.
Mr Brampton
remarked: "In the ten days following my resignation from the Board,
many of the most experienced Mambo users have left. Respected support
folk using the Mambo Communities forum have found their posts removed
and anyone questioning current events has been banned or blocked. The
project is in disarray and some developers have found their access to
the Mambo Communities-owned code and development web sites blocked".
He
concluded: "By these and other actions, I have been placed in an
untenable position. My departure from the Mambo project is effective
immediately".