4 ms·

Maybe contacting their hosting provider could be an additional way to approach the problem, since, from what I can tell, the messages they send to contributors

Maybe contacting their hosting provider could be an additional way to approach the problem, since, from what I can tell, the messages they send to contributors are spam.

csdrane 12y ago
Not sure how the process works, but what about getting their domain added to Spamhaus's lists? [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spamhaus_Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spamhaus_Project
ubernostrum 12y ago
We (Django) already threatened that a while back. They still insist they will not remove projects or stop collecting donations on behalf of non-consenting projects. All they did was manually disable some of the spam coming toward our committers.
- brador 12y ago
  Assuming you had the muscle, what's the worst a dev could theoretically hit them with? Could they be succesfully sued? DMCA?
  - tachion 12y ago
    You do realise that there is life and even entire civilizations outside of the USA, where DMCA holds no jurisdiction and the entire idea of suing becomes much more complicated? Especially when it seems from the GitHub discussion thread the tip4commit founder lives in a place where there is no regulations regarding what is a spam and what is not. ;)
    - sfk 12y ago
      DMCA being relevant or not, my understanding is that the takedown notice goes to the website's ISP (LINODE-US in this case).
  - iolsantr 12y ago
    If a project name was trademarked, you might be able to get them for trading on that name, maybe?
    - brador 12y ago
      Can you trademark open source project names?
      - pmh 12y ago
        I think so, yes. See Iceweasel[0], the custom Debian build of Firefox. I'm not sure that you'd be successful in using trademark law in this particular scenario though. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_rebranded_by_the_Debian_project#Iceweasel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_re...
      - JohnTHaller 12y ago
        Absolutely. Mozilla, Firefox, OpenOffice, Apache, Debian, etc are all registered trademarks and can not be used by others without permission.
        natch 12y ago
        And most famously Linux: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:88wh2t.2.232 http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:88w...
      - donaldr3 12y ago
        Yes, in fact GPLv3 specifically deals with trademarks in section 7e).
      - chx 12y ago
        Hell yeah. Drupal trademark policy http://drupal.com/trademark http://drupal.com/trademark Apache trademark policy http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/ http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/ Eclipse trademark policy https://www.eclipse.org/legal/logo_guidelines.php https://www.eclipse.org/legal/logo_guidelines.php KDE® and the K Desktop Environment® logo are registered trademarks of KDE e.V. can't find the policy right now.
  - wyck 12y ago
    It depends on the country, in Canada you can certainly report them to the CRTC as breaking the law (CASL). http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/casl-lcap.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/casl-lcap.htm Emailing someone in Canada now requires consent (various legal ways) or close personal relationship. It doesn't cost anything to report them https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/rapidsccm/Default-Defaut.aspx https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/rapidsccm/Default-Defaut.asp... . But if you really wanted to pursue them, you would have to hire a lawyer, a complaint doesn't have the same weight or speed of a legal filing. This just goes to show you has clueless the developers are with regards to international policy and law.
- jacques_chester 12y ago
  Who holds the trademark for Django? That person or organisation might have standing in some jurisdictions to ask for it to be removed. (IANAL, TINLA)
  - ubernostrum 12y ago
    The Django Software Foundation is custodian of the registered IP of Django, including the trademark: https://www.djangoproject.com/trademarks/ https://www.djangoproject.com/trademarks/ If you want to support Django and its community and development (which includes more than just commits to a git repository), there is also a mechanism to donate to the DSF: https://www.djangoproject.com/foundation/donate/ https://www.djangoproject.com/foundation/donate/
  - kingkilr 12y ago
    Django's trademark is held by the Django Software Foundation.

Maybe contacting their hosting provider could be an additional way to approach the problem, since, from what I can tell, the messages they send to contributors are spam.

csdrane 12y ago

Not sure how the process works, but what about getting their domain added to Spamhaus's lists? [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spamhaus_Project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spamhaus_Project

ubernostrum 12y ago

We (Django) already threatened that a while back. They still insist they will not remove projects or stop collecting donations on behalf of non-consenting projects. All they did was manually disable some of the spam coming toward our committers.

brador 12y ago
Assuming you had the muscle, what's the worst a dev could theoretically hit them with? Could they be succesfully sued? DMCA?
- tachion 12y ago
  You do realise that there is life and even entire civilizations outside of the USA, where DMCA holds no jurisdiction and the entire idea of suing becomes much more complicated? Especially when it seems from the GitHub discussion thread the tip4commit founder lives in a place where there is no regulations regarding what is a spam and what is not. ;)
  - sfk 12y ago
    DMCA being relevant or not, my understanding is that the takedown notice goes to the website's ISP (LINODE-US in this case).
- iolsantr 12y ago
  If a project name was trademarked, you might be able to get them for trading on that name, maybe?
  - brador 12y ago
    Can you trademark open source project names?
    - pmh 12y ago
      I think so, yes. See Iceweasel[0], the custom Debian build of Firefox. I'm not sure that you'd be successful in using trademark law in this particular scenario though. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_rebranded_by_the_Debian_project#Iceweasel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation_software_re...
    - JohnTHaller 12y ago
      Absolutely. Mozilla, Firefox, OpenOffice, Apache, Debian, etc are all registered trademarks and can not be used by others without permission.
      - natch 12y ago
        And most famously Linux: http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:88wh2t.2.232 http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:88w...
    - donaldr3 12y ago
      Yes, in fact GPLv3 specifically deals with trademarks in section 7e).
    - chx 12y ago
      Hell yeah. Drupal trademark policy http://drupal.com/trademark http://drupal.com/trademark Apache trademark policy http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/ http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/ Eclipse trademark policy https://www.eclipse.org/legal/logo_guidelines.php https://www.eclipse.org/legal/logo_guidelines.php KDE® and the K Desktop Environment® logo are registered trademarks of KDE e.V. can't find the policy right now.
- wyck 12y ago
  It depends on the country, in Canada you can certainly report them to the CRTC as breaking the law (CASL). http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/casl-lcap.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/casl-lcap.htm Emailing someone in Canada now requires consent (various legal ways) or close personal relationship. It doesn't cost anything to report them https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/rapidsccm/Default-Defaut.aspx https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/rapidsccm/Default-Defaut.asp... . But if you really wanted to pursue them, you would have to hire a lawyer, a complaint doesn't have the same weight or speed of a legal filing. This just goes to show you has clueless the developers are with regards to international policy and law.
jacques_chester 12y ago
Who holds the trademark for Django? That person or organisation might have standing in some jurisdictions to ask for it to be removed. (IANAL, TINLA)
- ubernostrum 12y ago
  The Django Software Foundation is custodian of the registered IP of Django, including the trademark: https://www.djangoproject.com/trademarks/ https://www.djangoproject.com/trademarks/ If you want to support Django and its community and development (which includes more than just commits to a git repository), there is also a mechanism to donate to the DSF: https://www.djangoproject.com/foundation/donate/ https://www.djangoproject.com/foundation/donate/
- kingkilr 12y ago
  Django's trademark is held by the Django Software Foundation.