<p>This thread is from debian-devel. Would anyone here who had a lot of experience working (or dealing) with Marillat like to respond?</p>
<p>~ Andres<br>
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: "Stefano Zacchiroli" <<a href="mailto:leader@debian.org">leader@debian.org</a>><br>
Date: Mar 5, 2012 2:41 AM<br>
Subject: Re: Unofficial repositories on 'debian' domains<br>
To: <<a href="mailto:debian-devel@lists.debian.org">debian-devel@lists.debian.org</a>></p>
<p>On Sun, Mar 04, 2012 at 10:59:39PM +0000, Ben Hutchings wrote:<br>
> Looking at the front page of <a href="http://www.debian-multimedia.org/">http://www.debian-multimedia.org/</a> today,<br>
> I don't see a clear statement that it is unofficial.</p>
<p>Agreed.</p>
<p>I also find disturbing that the website seeks for donations without<br>
making clear that donated money do not go to the Debian Project. That is<br>
not necessarily done out of malice, of course, but it seems to live in<br>
the same uncertainty about the "unofficiality" of the website that you<br>
mention.</p>
<p>> But for new users and potential users, this distinction probably isn't<br>
> obvious. There is a reason that Debian has pursued trademark<br>
> enforcement actions against various debian.xy domains.</p>
<p>Agreed, and I've been thinking about <a href="http://debian-multimedia.org">debian-multimedia.org</a> since quite a<br>
while. According to our trademark policy (present and draft), the<br>
website is in violation of Debian trademark. As the website is<br>
maintained by a Debian Developer, I'm sure we don't need that specific<br>
aspect to come into some sort of amicable solution.</p>
<p>But before getting there, the question is whether the existence of the<br>
website (and its popularity) poses problem to Debian reputation and/or<br>
to the activity of official Debian multimedia packaging. I think this is<br>
a question for the Debian Multimedia Maintainers (as in<br>
<<a href="mailto:pkg-multimedia-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org">pkg-multimedia-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org</a>>) to answer. If they<br>
see a problem with <a href="http://debian-multimedia.org">debian-multimedia.org</a>, we should get in touch with<br>
the website maintainers and solve the issue.</p>
<p>> And to avoid singling out <a href="http://debian-multimedia.org">debian-multimedia.org</a>, I think this<br>
> confusion could just as well happen with repositories on<br>
> <a href="http://foo.debian.net">foo.debian.net</a> domains.</p>
<p>I think the situations with <a href="http://debian.net">debian.net</a> is quite different. *.<a href="http://debian.net">debian.net</a><br>
is a namespace offered by Debian to developers that want to setup<br>
services which are not (yet) integrated in the Debian infrastructure<br>
and, as such, not yet blessed as official project services. I don't<br>
think we need to have any stricter procedure that the current one for<br>
people to setup *.<a href="http://debian.net">debian.net</a> entries.</p>
<p>What we need, though, is probably to make it more clear to our users<br>
what is the difference among *.<a href="http://debian.net">debian.net</a> and *.<a href="http://debian.org">debian.org</a> services. It<br>
is something that developers know by folklore, but that I seriously<br>
doubt most of our users know. For me, the most appropriate way to do is<br>
to put a splash page at <a href="http://www.debian.net">www.debian.net</a> explaining that. If DSA agrees<br>
with that approach, I'm sure we can easily come up with a suitable<br>
splash text.</p>
<p>While we are at it, I also think we should provide an index of<br>
*.<a href="http://debian.net">debian.net</a> entries on that splash page.<br>
<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianNetDomains">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianNetDomains</a> is just too prone to outdateness<br>
and incompleteness. The index can be automatically generated from LDAP<br>
and. IIRC a past chat with DSA, DSA is fine with that but is aware of<br>
privacy concerns that some of the registrant of *.<a href="http://debian.net">debian.net</a> entries<br>
might have. Personally, I don't think we should be worried about privacy<br>
concerns there. The <a href="http://debian.net">debian.net</a> is a Debian project resource and we<br>
should be ready to advertise all its entries, otherwise people should<br>
not register them in the first place.<br></p>
<p>Cheers.<br>
--<br>
Stefano Zacchiroli zack@{upsilon.cc,<a href="http://pps.jussieu.fr">pps.jussieu.fr</a>,<a href="http://debian.org">debian.org</a>} . o .<br>
Maître de conférences ...... <a href="http://upsilon.cc/zack">http://upsilon.cc/zack</a> ...... . . o<br>
Debian Project Leader ....... @zack on <a href="http://identi.ca">identi.ca</a> ....... o o o<br>
« the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »<br>
</p>