[lubuntu-users] lubuntu projects from Asian community blocked due to DMCA Copyright and Trademark Claims

[Hong Phuc Dang]

Dear all,

I am writing to seek support from people who really care about Free and
Open Source development and community.

I woke up this morning receiving DMCA Copyright Claims from Github and tons
of messages on the gitter channel - where I and other FOSSASIA
developers/contributors from Asia communicate about lubuntu. Apparently
people who identify themselves as officials want to discuss with us about
Copyright and Trademarks under Canonical.

FYI some FOSSASIA folks started a small documentation site a few weeks ago
to collect the scattered information on lubuntu and translate them to Asian
languages because we find it is very difficult to follow and engage in the
current lubuntu wiki. So we built the site using Github pages, which was
still work-in-progress and being updated step-by-step by the FOSSASIA
community. Today suddenly, our work on Github has been blocked because it
is supposed to be a Copyright infringement according to the US Digital
Copyright Millennium Act and lubuntu.me claims to own the copyright to all
kinds of lubuntu content and Trademarks and now uses the GPL to claim an
infringement. This is what the notes say. You can see it here:
https://github.com/lubuntu-dev/dmca/blob/master/2017/2017-12-28-Lubuntu.md

I also learned that the same thing has happened to the original lubuntu
twitter that is maintained by FOSSASIA contributors/members as well as the
YouTube channel we just started. They are all blocked now or closed because
of a copy infringement or other legal pretext someone has filed to all
these service providers. The account had been set up 2010 long before other
lubuntu accounts!

I personally and my team at FOSSASIA are saddened by this action of some
people who claim to represent Canonical - an organization, that we have
been looking up to as a good example for the open community.

Please pardon my ignorance but I still don’t understand what is wrong about
starting a new documentation project and a new chat channel where we -
Asian contributors feel more comfortable and can freely learn and freely
work on things that we care about, which is not politics or legalities. I
am concerned about what is going to happen next. Are we going to be
harassed more and oppressed by people who stand behind the US Copyright and
Trademark?

If we are violating US laws, we need to be informed officially by the
authorities in order to take further actions. But if it is not the case,
someone needs to be responsible to bring all our things back to their
original stage and unblock all our channels. We do not want to involve in a
fight for any kind of power and endorsement. We want to have the freedom,
the joy, and the peace working on projects and things that are matter to us
and our society.

Please help us.

@hpdang <https://twitter.com/hpdang>
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