As you may be aware, I’ve been working on a StumbleUpon Safari extension to mimic the functionality of the Firefox plugin. I’ve written about it here on my blog, created a page devoted to the MiniStumble project and also attempted to gather input from the StumbleUpon forums.

Yesterday, my StumbleUpon forum posts were removed, the only message in the otherwise automated email being “not legal”. I then submitted a request for more information on the StumbleUpon feedback page. The following is the response I received:

Your request (#######) has been updated.
You can add a comment by replying to this email.

[Name Redacted], Sep-30 05:17 pm (PDT):
Hello Lynn,

Thanks for writing to us,

While we appreciate your enthusiasm for StumbleUpon, unfortunately, we do not allow third parties to create StumbleUpon extensions and we do not recommend you to invest resources on building such an extension from us. Our legal team may be contacting you with more details.

Thank you for your interest!

Best,

[Name Redacted]
StumbleUpon Support Team

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Stumbleupon, Sep-29 03:44 pm (PDT):
I’m developing a Safari extension for StumbleUpon based upon the code in the Firefox plugin. This would provide similar functionality to the web toolbar but because it doesn’t embed the stumbled content into an iframe it is resistant to frame breaking logic. Additionally it would be always on rather than having to use the toolbar. You know all the reasons it is better to use a plugin/extension in lieu of the web toolbar.

I had posted some links on the forums in response to people asking for just this. Today they were all removed and the only text I got in the email was “not legal”.

I would like to know if the implication is that there is an actual legal issue or if that was intended to just mean “not allowed on our forums”.

Furthermore I would like to know if there is any chance that I could receive assistance on this, or perhaps offer my own assistance to you in developing a proper, StumbleUpon officially sanctioned Safari extension.

There is definitely desire for a Safari extension to use in place of the web toolbar with the obvious benefits.

I would absolutely love to hear back from you to help clarify things for me.

Regards,

Lynn

As you can see, the claim is being made that not only do they disapprove but that what I am doing is illegal. I’m not sure what exactly is illegal about it. I have my own ideas on why they are as protective as they are about outside parties working on something like this but regardless it would appear that I’m kicking against the goads as it were. As this was intended to be a free offering for myself and other Safari users, to improve upon the web toolbar experience, I have no inclination to fight StumbleUpon on this, especially if they plan to bring in lawyers.

I’m going to update the project page and remove the link to the extension itself and take it down as well. Had I known it would meet with this resistance I wouldn’t have gotten anyone’s hopes up on bringing this forth. My hope is that they will take the hint that this is really something that people want and that some are willing to invest time and effort into doing if it isn’t done for them, and therefore build one themselves with all the bells and whistles. Based on what I see in the Firefox plugin, I think it is absolutely a manageable goal to get a similar capability going on Safari.