Robert Scott Horning wrote:
Jeffrey V. Merkey wrote:
I request persmission from the Foundation to use
its trademarks solely
for the purpose attribution as required by the GFDL. Email of such
consent to
this list is acceptable as a reply to this email. The foundation must
release WMG and Wikigadugi from any and all liability, claims, and causes
of action for the use of its trademarks and names SOLELY for the purpose
of GFDL compliance. I ca find no page on the
wikimedia.org site
that grants such a release. I will not use or misuse Foundation
trademarks without such permission.
Jeff
I'll defer here to Brad in terms of strict legal requirements, but I
fail to see how it is a violation and abuse of trademarks to cite
Wikipedia as the source of the material, in a bibliographic reference.
Or that you even need permission to do this sort of citation. Indeed,
I would think it to be a violation of the GFDL on the part of the WMF to
even require permission in this manner, as it would then be legally
impossible to comply with the GFDL when giving this content to a 3rd party.
You should not have to seek permission from the WMF or anybody on
Wikipedia in order to copy content from Wikipedia. That is the whole
point of the GFDL.
It could potentially be trademark infrginement and trading on the
goodwill of the foundation in certain situations. In any event, companies
are not about civil disobediance. WMG needs permission or implied
pemission in the form of a statement by he Foundation that use if its
valuable trademark rights is granted for purposes of attribution through
the use of its trademarks.
Apolicy page on
wikimedia.org would probably address any issues on this
topic.
Jeff