[mythtv-users] Trademark Issue with "Packages - MythTV Official Wiki" and the repository is questionable for Debian users

Mark Perkins perkins1724 at hotmail.com
Thu Nov 6 04:32:50 UTC 2014


> -----Original Message-----
> From: mythtv-users-bounces at mythtv.org [mailto:mythtv-users-
> bounces at mythtv.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Peters
> Sent: Thursday, 6 November 2014 1:20 PM
> To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> Cc: chuck.peters at gmail.com
> Subject: [mythtv-users] Trademark Issue with "Packages - MythTV Official
> Wiki" and the repository is questionable for Debian users
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Packages shows Debian packages are
> available for MythTV.  However the packages are not officially part of
Debian
> [1], and the site which was advertised as Debian Multimedia is known to
> break libraries for Debian users [2].
> 
> The MythTV packages page shows the Debian logo and definitely left me
> with the impression that it was officially part of Debian. It was a
trademark
> violation and the site owner was asked by Debian's project leader Stefano
> Zacchiroli in 2012 to change the domain name.  I would like to see it
corrected
> on MythTV's site. [3]
> 
> 1.
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-multimedia-maintainers/2012-
> May/026678.html
> 2.
http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-multimedia-maintainers/2012-
> April/025867.html
> 3. https://www.debian.org/trademark
> When You Can Use the Debian Trademarks Without Asking Permission
>   1. You can use Debian trademarks to make true factual statements about
> Debian or communicate compatibility with your product truthfully.
> 
> I would have editid the wiki page, https://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Packages,
> but I don't have permission.
> 
> Option 1: Remove the entry for the Debian packages.  Then after we have
> some official Debian packages, link to it.  I favor this option.
> 
> Option 2: Remove the word Debian, and make it clear it is a third party
site
> asking for donations and it may break your Debian libraries or worse.
> 
> Any comments?
> 

Hi Chuck, I've got a couple. But first - full disclosure:
a) I don't use Debian or have anything to do with it at all.
b) I'm just a plain old ordinary MythTV user, representing no-one but
myself.

Comments:
Both your [1] and [2] relate to something called "debian-multimedia.org".
"debian-multimedia.org" does not equal "MythTV". Even if MythTV's
dependencies' can be - in part - satisfied by "debian-multimedia.org" that
does not create equality. MythTV depends on MySQL, but that does not make
MythTV responsible for MySQL. If you have a problem with
"debian-multimedia.org ", I suggest you take it up with
"debian-multimedia.org ".

Your [3] does not relate to a request from Stefano Zacchiroli to the "MythTV
site owner". It links to the Debian trademarks page. Please provide the
correct link detailing the 2012 request from Stefano Zacchiroli to the
"MythTV site owner".

On the oft-chance that you can't find such a request, I took the time to
read the trademark page in great detail - and I can find no infraction. In
fact, the one line you copied from that page clearly states (as you quoted)
"You can use Debian trademarks to make true factual statements about Debian
or communicate compatibility with your product truthfully". What is the
'untrue' statement to which you refer? MythTV is compatible with Debian,
just ask the Debian users who use MythTV. MythTV does not claim to be
endorsed by Debian (as is prohibited in later sections). Please explicitly
highlight the 'untrue' statement. Alternatively, if you wish to argue that
MythTV is incompatible with Debian then happy for you to have that
discussion with the current Debian users.

Further - can you please clarify your association with Debian? Who has
authorised you to manage Debian Trademark disputes on Debian's behalf? What
is your position in the official Debian organisation? How have you been
officially authorized to act on behalf of Debian in this matter?

I'm going to take a guess here that you wrote a message to the maintainers
of "debian-multimedia.org ". You then did a find-and-replace to change
"debian-multimedia.org" to "MythTV" without actually reading what it now
said. Because if your message is read clearly as it is written, it makes no
sense and is factually incorrect. To take just one example - MythTV does not
ask for donations (as you have clearly accused it of in your 'Option 2'
above).

In summary - I respectfully suggest you clearly rethink what it is you are
attempting to say - to the MythTV Developers and to the MythTV Community. I
would also respectfully suggest you consider whether the appropriate first
step is to broadcast a factually incorrect message on a public user list
(which is publicly archived)- or whether better results could be achieved by
contacting the developers directly. Perhaps apologise for this message, and
then try again in a different way (maybe the MythTV IRC channel? see
https://www.mythtv.org/support and try the developer one) - hopefully before
you make any more factually incorrect statements.

I hope your concerns get resolved satisfactorily.

> 
> 
> I am looking into running a MythTV frontend on Debian's stable release
> wheezy with the backend running Mythbuntu's .27 fixes branch from the
> Launchpad PPA.  I'm still looking into how I might do that and
unfortunately I
> have more questions like Why isn't MythTV in the official Debian archives
yet
> and what do we need to do you get them there...  I would think it wouldn't
> be too much work to use the Mythbuntu packages in Debian, but then we
> would have other trademark issues that require a license from Canonical...
> Hopefully we can see some official Debian MythTV packages by christmas,
> does anyone want to help?
> 
> Let me be clear I am not accusing anyone of doing something intentionally
> wrong.  I just want MythTV and Debian users to be able to run reliable
> packages easily and not worry about these sometimes messy trademark
> issues.
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Chuck
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org



More information about the mythtv-users mailing list