[Bug 1701068] Re: motd.ubuntu.com currently shows media item (HBO's Silicon Valley using Ubuntu)

[Timothy R. Chavez]

I don't know if this should be a separate issue, but while investigating
this issue and learning about motd-news, I stumbled across this in the
code https://gist.github.com/anonymous/fdc1cab8cb193ca19aa4c663c1ebd1f5
#file-gistfile1-txt-L245 -- While I applaud the creativity, I don't
think it's right for Canonical to be collecting server information into
the USER_AGENT and curl'ing it back to motd.ubuntu.com. First, it's
completely non-obvious. No one would be the wiser that Canonical is
collecting this information if they weren't actually looking at the
code. Second, you have to opt-out of it. Third, by opting out of it,
you're also forced to opt out of critical information about
vulnerabilities, distro EOL messages, etc. In this way, we're sort of
having to "buy" motd-news with information about our servers. That
should be spelled out somewhere, at the very least.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1701068

Title:
  motd.ubuntu.com currently shows media item (HBO's Silicon Valley using
  Ubuntu)

Status in base-files package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  In Ubuntu 17.04 or newer, there is a script at /etc/update-motd.d/50
  -motd-news that reads https://motd.ubuntu.com/ and displays that text
  with the rest of the MOTD.

  Currently, https://motd.ubuntu.com shows a news item about HBO's Silicon Valley which has a reference to Ubuntu. 
  Instead, https://motd.ubuntu.com should show relevant items to those that 
  use Ubuntu Server (relevant security issues, etc), instead of items for desktop users.

  =============================
  Welcome to Ubuntu 17.04 (GNU/Linux 4.10.0-21-generic x86_64)

   * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
   * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
   * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

   * How HBO's Silicon Valley built "Not Hotdog" with mobile TensorFlow,
     Keras & React Native on Ubuntu
     - https://ubu.one/HBOubu
  ==============================

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
  Package: base-files 9.6ubuntu13
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-24.28-generic 4.10.15
  Uname: Linux 4.10.0-24-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Wed Jun 28 12:31:24 2017
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-05-02 (56 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
  ProcEnviron:
   TERM=xterm-256color
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: base-files
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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