Very eloquently put Denny.
I think your point is very well made that independently of what we as
individuals think about the legal Trademark merits of this particular case,
or the community processes of choosing a logo, the point remains that our
fighting this would not help to serve the mission (either in a practical
sense or an ideological sense) and could potentially lose us a lot of time
and money that would be better spent elsewhere.
It is unfortunate that it has come to this situation, but WMF-Legal has
made this decision not because the WTO's budget is bigger than ours, but
because their claim is sensible. I would hope that we would always say "ok"
when other organisations ask sensible things from us, and we always say
"no" when other organisations ask stupid things of us. In both cases these
decisions should be made on the merits of the situation and independently
of the size of the organisation asking. Simply because the WTO is "big"
doesn't mean that everything they say is bullying (although they certainly
do bully when they want to).
- Liam / Wittylama
On 2 June 2013 07:27, Denny Vrandečić <denny.vrandecic(a)wikimedia.de> wrote:
Peter, we stand up to big bullies. As big as they get.
But in this case, I
cannot see the WTO bullying us. Their terms are very reasonable in my
opinion, and I am grateful to the legal team for handling this situation
this well.
But in this case, we are talking about either changing a non-established
logo - something that has been discussed anyway before in the community, as
SJ pointed out - or risking to spend donation money on a very expensive
legal battle that, frankly, does not look very promising. And if the court
decides against us, which simply looks probable, we would need to change it
anyway.
Or, to put it differently, Peter: what other programs paid by our budget
would you curtail in order to try defending the Wikivoyage logo? Should we
cut down on development? On supporting chapters? Look at FDC and IEG, and
simply weight the projects enabled by that money against keeping the
Wikivoyage logo? Is the logo really worth that much?
Our movement fights against big bullies. Be it in the legislative branch,
where we use protest and lobbying, be it in the judicial branch, where we
defend volunteers in court, be it in the executive branch, where our
methods are cooperation and mutual support.
But I fail to see what the benefit of this particular fight would be in
reaching our mission. The costs, on the other hand, can be drastic.
2013/6/2 Peter Southwood <peter.southwood(a)telkomsa.net>
So we stand up to small bullies, by not to big
ones.
Nice to know where the line is drawn when it comes to principles.
Cheers,
Peter