[Commons-l] proposed policy - Commons:Trademarks

Thu Sep 7 07:04:36 UTC 2006

On 07/09/06, Brianna Laugher <brianna.laugher at gmail.com> wrote:

> What about version 2: instead of applying to all registered
> trademarks, apply to all registered trademarked logos. This should
> remove the ridiculous cases like you mentioned above (car body shapes,
> landscape, device designs etc). But still includes Pringles boxes &
> German logos.

I think it's the wrong place to apply a policy.

If the usage is the problematic thing, we can't protect people from
using something in a way that contradicts local law, any more than we
can stop them from reusing a GFDL image in print without reprinting
the entire GFDL next to it. A licence template does not constitute
legal advice either, and we can't guarantee something marked with a
particular licence is in fact under that licence - do we remove all
images the Foundation doesn't have signed paper on? (i.e., operate at
the level of assurance the FSF operates at.)

Ultimately we can only be people's mothers to a certain extent.

Commons was conceived as a service project for the Wikipedias, then
people started treating it as an area to make a personal name for
themselves on as if it were a wholly separate entity; if the second
group of people make it useless for the first purpose, then we would
have to duplicate the service project aspect. Which strikes me as
ridiculous.

- d.