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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