Hi,
Fredrik Josefsson schrieb am 08.08.2006 02:18:
What is the deal with trademarked images that are not procted by copyrights? Should they find a haven on Commons, or should they be wiped out?
An ambitious user created template:trademarked ( http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Trademarked ) that he then applied to some images he did not consider possible to copyright because of a "lack of creativity". The template was applied to, for example, the logotypes of Opel and Mazda.
It was also suggested that the logotype of the Wikimedia foundation is not copyrightable because it does not containt sufficient creative authorship.
This is all based on some persistant users alleged comprehension of German jurisdiction where (according to the users) "sweat of the brow" is required to render something copyrightable.
So what are the legal definitions on copyrightability, and what to do with images that are only trademark protected but not copyright protected?
About a year ago it was common sense to delete Logos in german Wikipedia and at the Commons. This changed in german Wikipedia (I don't think this is wise) - Logos like http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:GIGAlogo.jpg are keeped and won't be deleted because the supporters argue that regarding german law the "amount of creativity" to create this logo is too low.
I am argueing, the "amount of work, money and nerves" caused by a possible law suit - which won't have to be taken by the supporters - is too high.
In my opinion theese pictures should be deleted from commons (...and de) on sight.
Bye, Tim.