[Foundation-l] Use of logos within Wikimedia sites

[DF]

Wikimedia's logos are copyrighted and trademarked. 
Notwithstanding this, the logos have been placed on a
large number of pages under circumstances where other
copyrighted works would never be used.  Often this is
done simply for identification (e.g. this page is
about Wikipedia, so it has the Wikipedia logo), and
other times it is done for what might be called
promotional reasons.  Most such uses undoubtedly occur
without any direct input from the Foundation.

For examples, see the links on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikipedia-logo-en.png
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikipedia-logo.png

In addition, any image that incorporates a Wikimedia
logo has generally been marked "Copyright by
Wikimedia", regardless of the image's immediate
author:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CopyrightByWikimedia

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:CopyrightByWikimedia

Some of these have apparently been created by
Wikipedians specifically to promote Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Banners_and_buttons
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikimedia_promotion

Recently, one of these promotional
banners(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NotSuckBanner.jpg)
was deleted (and now temporarily undeleted, subject to
deletion review) essentially for violating Wikipedia's
rules on the use of copyrighted works.  (Or in other
words, because it was a copyrighted image not being
used in an article.)

Now many of us believe that there could reasonably be
an exception to Wikipedia's copyright rules when it
comes to images owned by Wikimedia itself, especially
if they serve a useful purpose like promoting
Wikipedia.  However, because of the unique role that
the logos play in the visual identity of Wikipedia, I
wanted to come here and get guidance from the
Foundation about what constitutes acceptable use.  I
would appreciate it if people would review the
materials on the pages linked above and give some
direction on when logos can be incorporated in other
images and what kinds of pages they might reasonably
be used on.  In particular, are promotional tools like
banners and the like acceptable?

-Robert Rohde
aka Dragons_flight on EN


 
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