[vlc-devel] What to do about VLC scams?

[Geoffroy Couprie]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 6:05 PM, Andre-John Mas <ajmas at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> On 24-Feb-2011, at 09:00, Rémi Denis-Courmont wrote:
>
>>
>> On Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:42:35 +0100, Jean-Baptiste Kempf <jb at videolan.org>
>> wrote:
>>> VLC scams are now very numerous, and seeing that the number of people
>>> downloading VLC increases but not the number of visits on the website, I
>>> would say that this is becoming a very important share of our downloads.
>>
>>> Here is what I suggest:
>>> - translate VideoLAN website in different languages, even if only the
>>>   main pages.
>>> - disallow any redistribution of a different installer on Windows, that
>>>   the genuine one, under the VLC name.
>>
>> Where do you own the trademark?
>> Won't this piss of legitimate downstream distributors?
>
> Could there be a list of legitimate downstream distributors listed on the Videolan web site
> and encourage them to register the hash of their binaries.
>
> Possibly a bit of overkill though, but it may help people trying to identify the legitimacy
> of the binary they have.
>

The problem is not really about finding a way to legitimate some
distributors, but smacking down illegitimate ones. The legal way
(cease and desist, etc.) might work temporarily, but they can always
create more websites for their scams and spyware/malware distribution.
It is more of a SEO problem.