Re: Canonical’s IPRights Policy incompatible with Ubuntu licence policy

[Valorie Zimmerman]

On Fri, May 1, 2015 at 4:03 PM, Michael Hall <mhall119 at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> I'm going to go out on a limb and assume I speak for the rest of the CC
> when I say that we absolutely do agree that Ubuntu is Free Software and
> that Canonical and everybody else should comply with the copyright
> licenses of the software that is distributed as part of it. However,
> that was not what Jonathan asked of us.
>
> We also believe that Canonical agrees with the above, and that they are
> operating in good faith on the belief that they are compliance with it.
> Whether or not the policy Canonical has put forward is legally compliant
> with one or more copyright licenses in Ubuntu is a legal question that
> the CC can not and will not answer.

Naturally. As a matter of fact, I believe that Canonical is acting in
good faith. However, I don't think their legal team is giving them
good advice, and Jonathon showed the evidence of that.

> We are not lawyers, and taking legal stances or giving legal advice is
> not in the council's mandate. Please keep that in mind and respect that
> everyone in this council cared deeply about Ubuntu, our upstreams and
> our derivatives, even if we don't take the action that some people want
> taken.
>
> Michael Hall
> mhall119 at ubuntu.com

Legal stances or advice are not asked for; merely the stand you stated
above. However, the problematic policy and page still are on the
website.

I don't like that we seem to be at odds with one another. I do not
consider Kubuntu to be apart from the Ubuntu community in any way, any
more than Ubuntu Women or any of the other parts of Ubuntu that I'm
involved in, like my loco. Which, by the way, ran a successful table
in conjunction with KDE and the Oregon Loco at Linuxfest Northwest
last weekend. Many ISOs were burned and given away, along with
tshirts, stickers, pens etc.

Criticism of various policies that Canonical has in place are not
criticisms of the CC or the Ubuntu Community. Nor does criticism make
us enemies. I still consider Michael and Jono friends, right along
with Jonathon and Rohan. I appreciate the sponsorship the Community
has given me in the past to attend Kubuntu days at Akademy, and am
thankful for that again this year.

We are all on the same side here. Criticism does not make us enemies,
or even opponents. We all want a healthy Ubuntu community, and a
healthy free ecosystem. Jumping to the defense of wrong-headed
policies is not necessary.

The content on Ubuntu.com reflects on all of us, and should express
our shared values.

Valorie


> On 05/01/2015 06:47 PM, Valorie Zimmerman wrote:
>> How can it *not* be a CC issue? Jonathan stated the issue very
>> clearly. All the CC need do is agree that Ubuntu is Free Software,
>> that we continue to respect the four freedoms as we always have.
>>
>> What Canonical does is their business of course, and naturally I hope
>> that their discussions with the SFLC go well, and that all is
>> clarified on their end. Until that happens and their one problematic
>> page is changed, the CC can at least be on record standing for
>> freedom.
>>
>> "Waiting on Canonical" is problematic. Canonical's issues are their
>> own. The CC is for US, the Ubuntu Community.
>>
>> Valorie
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 1, 2015 at 3:19 PM, Michael Hall <mhall119 at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>> It is not a CC issue, we are not privy to the discussions between
>>> Canonical and the SFLC.
>>>
>>> Michael Hall
>>> mhall119 at ubuntu.com
>>>
>>> On 05/01/2015 06:17 PM, Jono Bacon wrote:
>>>> I don't see this as a CC issue: they are going to be unable to push
>>>> this forward very quickly. I would raise this directly with the
>>>> trademarks team at Canonical.
>>>>
>>>> On 1 May 2015 at 15:14, Rohan Garg <rohangarg at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>>>>> I've spoken to the CC previously about this, and I was told that
>>>>> Canonical is working with the SFLC to figure something out.
>>>>>
>>>>> Last update I have is from 28th October, 2014 where I was informed
>>>>> that it's still being worked on and there is no estimate on how long
>>>>> it'll take :(
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards
>>>>> Rohan Garg
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