[Commons-l] Wikimedia Logos on Commons: Possible Solution

[Daniel Kinzler]

Eugene Zelenko wrote:
...
> I think MediaWiki contain technical ability to solve this problem. As
> far as I remember SVN comments, new file storage class allow to
> support several shared file servers like Commons. So Wikimedia logos
> could be moved to dedicated server. Access to this server could be
> restricted for avoiding vandalism/unapproved logos changes (for
> example to stewards/board memebers).

"free content only" is a Wikimedia policy, it applies to all content served from
any Wikimedia server. Moving logos to a different server does not solve the
problem, it's just shifting it around, perhaps allowing Commons to ignore it.

There are basically only two options:

a) live with the slightly hypocritical current situation - i.e. making the logos
an exception from the general policy.

b) make the logos free content, and rely on trademark law to protect them
against abuse. This would in theory be the best solution IMHO, but does not seem
feasible in practice (trademark registration is per country, for a limited time,
for a limited purpose, harder to enforce, and quite expensive if done for all
logos in many countries).

Where the logos are hosted is irrelevant.

-- Daniel


PS: maybe the logos could be put under a free(ish) license that explicitly
treats use of logos and trademarks as a special case? GFDL and CC don't, but I
think the Apache license has a clause for that, and there are probably more.