Steve Langasek, 2009-12-03 06:17:05 -0800 : [...]
> Conflict of interest? Oh, disregard the previous comments, then; > apparently this /is/ just a thinly-veiled slander. Not necessarily. I'm not sure about the state of law worldwide, but French law has at least two criteria for slander (which we call « diffamation » here): falsehood and malicious intent. The reality of the conflict of interest is the very point being scrutinised here, and I think you'll agree there isn't a wide consensus on the lack of such a conflict. And since we are putting aside Ubuntu and mainly concerned about Debian, I claim one can, in good faith, consider the facts as a plausible indication of the existence of this conflict. Call me a slanderer if you like, but I'd rather you provided the salient facts needed to dissipate the misunderstanding (or make the bad faith more evident). > The question of whether someone is doing an adequate job of > maintaining a package is a legitimate one. The identity of their > employer is immaterial to an objective examination of this question. Let me disagree on that. It wouldn't mean much if the employer were unrelated, but in this case the identity of said employer *has* some bearing. Because it tells us that: Matthias has the technical abilities to do the job he's volunteered to do; he's presumably doing a good job in Ubuntu, unless Canonical is very lenient with its employees; and his employer has stated that Canonical employees are encouraged to do the right thing in relation to Debian. These points cannot be swept under the carpet with handwaving or accusations of slander alone. The timing of #559206 is probably just an unfortunate coincidence, but I find it telling nevertheless. Roland. -- Roland Mas Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you. -- in Small Gods (Terry Pratchett) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
