[Foundation-l] Wikimedia logos on Commons

[John Smith]

While I thank you for your sensible response, it does not match up with what
the foundation has actually come out and said or with what is actually
taking place on Wikimedia projects.

By linking to it from a foundation policy page, the foundation has endorsed
http://freedomdefined.org/Definition, which states:

"In most countries however, these freedoms are not enforced but suppressed
by the laws commonly named *copyright laws*. They consider authors as
god-like creators and give them an exclusive monopoly as to how "their
content" can be re-used. This monopoly impedes the flourishing of culture,
and it does not even help the economic situation of authors so much as it
protects the business model of the most powerful publishing companies."

I read this as an attack on copyright protection, that it should be severely
limited or abolished entirely. If the foundation did not agree with this
position, then why did it endorse this particular definition of free
content? It could easily have created a modified form of the definition that
matched its views more closely.

Also, the foundation continues to impose restrictions on non-free content
above and beyond that needed to further the goal of free education. Here are
some examples:

The Mozilla logos, such as the Firefox logo. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Non-free_Mozilla_logo - these logos
pose zero legal threat and releasing them under a free license would do very
little to further the goal of free education. Yet we are required to treat
them as if they were All Rights Reserved, forced for no legal or educational
reason to strip them from the user space.

The International Symbol of Access. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Symbol_of_Access - it may be used
by anyone for its intended purpose (again, zero legal threat), but may not
be used deceptively. Derivative works of it would be worthless because they
would not be widely recognized.

The International Symbol for Deafness. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deafness - Similar terms to the International
Symbol of Access.

It seems to me that the foundation has gone far beyond promoting free
educational content and has imposed needless restrictions on images that are
already free enough for any practical use.