National flag on wikipedia logo - Wikipedia-l

27 Jul 2007

Hi, I'm the hy:wp admin that Berto 'd Sera (thanks for doing this!).

The logo was uploaded by another admin, and there was no nationalistic
idea behind this, as far as I can tell (definitely not in the sense
discussed in this thred). There is a very strong language to nation to
ethnos relationship (correlation) when it comes to Armenian
(Armenians, Armenia), and the flag can and is frequently used as a
symbol of all the three. While I certainly understand the sentiment
(wp edition is for language not nation), this point was never
considered around the logo, since, quite honestly, I don't think
anyone took the logo to be a nationalistic stamp on wikipedia (and
many users did approve it after the upload).

My own concern with the logo was around the issue of copyright, the
logo being copyrighted by the WM, which was discussed on hy:wp. So
after trying the IRC, and not getting a certain answer about the logo
policies, I contacted the OTRS and received the following reply:

...
  ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 From: Wikipedia information team &lt;info-en(a)wikimedia.org&gt;
 Date: Jun 13, 2007 10:21 PM
 Subject: Re: [Ticket#2007061410001127] Wikipedia logo modification > policies
 To: teak &lt;teak.wiki(a)gmail.com&gt;

 Dear teak,

 Thank you for your mail.

 teak &lt;teak.wiki(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

  Hi,

 Are there any policies, or established practice about allowing
 modification of Wikimedia's projects' logos? The specific question
 that I have is about modifying the image part of "Wiki.png" on local
 Wikipedias, e.g. is http://uz.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wiki.png an
 allowed modification of the copyrighted image, even if it's being   > > used
 on one of Wikimedia's projects?

 This question has come up in the Armenian Wikipedia around the issue
 whether http://hy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Wiki.png is allowed.

 Thanks,

 teak.
 hy:User:Teak

 Try reading http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Uses_of_logo_derivatives, > but
they
 are generally allowed. I remember the Russians adding an award      > they got to
 their logo and was allowed.

 Yours sincerely,
 Zachary Harden 
So I guess a better logo policy outline may help others in similar
situations. In any case, the modified logo is coming out, I'll change
back to the usual one shortly.

teak.

-----Original Message-----
From: wikipedia-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:wikipedia-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Florence
Devouard
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 6:20 PM
To: wikipedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Re: [Wikipedia-l] National flag on wikipedia logo

Marco Chiesa wrote:
...
  Hi,
   surfing on hy.wikipedia (Armenian I think) I've noticed that the logo
 has been coulored with the national flag colours. Not having a clue on
 Armenian, I'm not sure if this is only a temporary change (National
 Holidays?) or a permanent change. I think it shouldn't be allowed in the
 latter case, since wikipedia is about languages and not countries.

 Cruccone 
Ack !
Whilst I am supportive of temporary (as in "24 hours") fun logo for
special events, setting up a permanent derivative logo is really wrong,
in particular when it refers to a nation.

Can someone talk to them and explain to them it is not okay to do this ?
I would be interested to know the process followed which led to such a
decision. Might it reflect internal bias or a misunderstanding of the
nature of our project ?

Ant