[Foundation-l] A local chapter without Wikimedians

Mon Nov 24 22:56:49 UTC 2008

2008/11/24 Casey Brown <cbrown1023.ml at gmail.com>:
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 5:41 PM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I know what the resolution says, it doesn't mean it makes sense. There
>> is no "Wikimedia Brasil", so the resolution is pretty meaningless. I
>> think the board ought to wait until the actual contracts are signed
>> before official recognising anything (the resolution could say
>> something like "The board authorises the management to enter
>> negotiations to officially recognise a Brazilian chapter.". The phrase
>> "Wikimedia Brasil" shouldn't be used for anything official until there
>> is a legal entity with permission to use that trademark.
>>
>
> You had a good point until I got to the end of your message -- did you
> actually read the resolution?  "The Board of Trustees grants Wikimedia
> Brasil interim permission to use the Wikimedia trademarks pending
> signature of the Chapters Agreement."  WMBR is a chapter, it may not
> be an government-approved organization yet, but once you are approved
> by the Board and a resolution is passed you become a chapter.
>
> [Re "interim permission", there is no legal entity, but there is still
> the group that is given the permission.]

So you are defining "Wikimedia Brasil" to be the group of people that
intend to form the legal entity? It's not clear that the resolution
means that, or that it is even well defined. Granting permission to
use a trademark is a legal thing, you can't do it in informal and
poorly defined terms. I think that interim permission is null and void
since one of the parties doesn't exist (perhaps a lawyer will inform
me otherwise - is there some standard legal interpretation for
licenses that reference an undefined party?).

I'm a mathematician, so I'm big on defining things precisely and,
judging by the long "definitions" section at the top of most legal
documents I've seen, so are lawyers. So, could you please define
"chapter" and "Wikimedia Brasil"?