Liberty, Tolerance, politics in Ubuntu forums (round 2 :-( )
yann
freedoomer at mandragor.org
Wed May 17 12:24:00 BST 2006
I already asked at a CC-Meeting what to do in case of political
deviations of the Ubuntu Logo, here is a short log:
< Yann2> What should we do if someone posts a wallpaper like
http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=37620 ? Delete it?
< mako> Yann2: my personal opinion is that it's probably not a trademark
violation and should probably just be left
< mdke> Yann2, that's not being used to promote another product and
won't confuse people into thinking there is endorsement
< mako> but if people at canonical disagree with me, they matter more on
this issue
< lucasvo> Yann2: afaik, it doesn't conflicts the trademark usage
policy. maybe it conflicts with the law, in that case it should be removed
< mdke> you can't stop people using your trademark for artistic purposes
without any commercial gain, it's just silly
< Yann2> -1 for me, I clearly dislike the fact of seeing ubuntu
associated with politics,
which could be misunderstood by people visiting the website publishing
them.
< elmo> I tend to agree with mako, FWIW, tho I don't count as Canonical
in terms of trademarks
< mako> Yann2: i think it's in a forum where it is clearly
user-contributed artwork
< ogra> Yann2, its just users ... as long as we dont publish it on our
website they are as free as the internet lets them
< mdke> absolutely
< mako> it's like those ubuntu-butts pictures [1]
< Yann2> ok, then... agreed.
< mdke> mmm
< Yann2> let's move on :)
In 2 words, if it's legal, then we should let users do what they want.
Half a week ago someone came up with the nick "IIIe Reich" and the
following avatar:
http://isfates.mandragor.org/toto/ufr/13141.png
This is illegal in France, since it is the exhibition, in public, of a
logo refering to an organisation recognised as responsible for crimes
against humanity by Nuremberg's Tribunal.
So we deleted this account. Since, many people are complaining that we
left another account, "URSS", with an avatar mixing ubuntu's logo with
the URSS Flag - which is, in France, legal. "Only different kind of
genocides", they say.
Question is: what are the rules in your forums? What would you do if
tomorrow, someone comes up with an avatar representing Mahomet? If your
locoteam is composed of more than one country, which law do you refer
to? Our servers are in France, if there is material on the forum that is
legal in France and illegal in Canada, should we delete it? Are you
having the same problems as we are?
Yann - Ubuntu-fr
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