Canonical Targets Ubuntu Privacy Critic

New submitter bkerensa writes "A member of Canonical's Legal Team recently sent a email to a critic of Ubuntu's privacy settings to insist he stop using the Ubuntu name and logo, even though it falls under 'fair use.' Micah Lee is the CTO of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and maintainer of the HTTPS Everywhere project. When Ubuntu began adding commercial results in its Dash search software, Lee wrote about the privacy concerns and created a site called Fix Ubuntu to show people how to turn it off. Canonical's legal department has now sent him a letter asking him to 'remove [the] Ubuntu word from you[r] domain name and Ubuntu logo from your website.'"

Comments

Dear Canonical

[FudRucker]

please quit using Linux and GNU licensed software because you people are a pariah to the entire FOSS community, you are like a rotten apple in a barrel of good apples, you need to be removed from the barrel and develop your own software independent from GNU/Linux, nobody loves you anymore so please go away

Re:Not so dickish move...

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Aren't they obligated (by law) to protect their trademark, or risk loosing it?

Of course. You're supposed to screw your trademark real tight. What if it falls off and bashes a customer entering or exiting your shop's premises on the head? You'd be liable for that.

Re:And the response is...

[fatphil]

I hereby release the script at the following link, and the output image it created, into the public domain:

http://fatphil.org/linux/goatsebuntu.html

In the words of Crowley, with them you may do what thou wilt.