[Foundation-l] Wikimedia/Wikipedia trademarks?

[Nathan Awrich]

It occurs to me that this forum (public, archived list) may not be
appropriate for an official response on this subject from the
Foundation. My bad.

~Nate

On Dec 18, 2007 4:01 PM, Nathan Awrich <nawrich at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm less interested in the issue as it relates to fair use (which, by
> its nature, doesn't require input from the WMF) but commercial or
> other use (a la Wikipedia Review, if they sell ads - do they?). The
> blanket permission is, as David notes, convenience rather than a
> requirement. But if the WMF doesn't protect its trademarks, then
> someone could dump the software and database and set up a new site and
> call it 'Wikipedia.'
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2007 3:49 PM, Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org> wrote:
> > David Gerard wrote:
> > > On 18/12/2007, Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org> wrote:
> >
> > >> Most cases are like this, newspapers are often a case where they can use
> > >>the
> > >> logo under fair use provisions (as we do on Wikinews for Google &c). Yes,
> > >>we
> > >> need to encourage people to ask, yes we need to be generous in granting
> > >> rights to use, and NO, we don't want to persecute people who in ignorance
> > >> use the logo unless it is to defame the Foundation.
> >
> >
> > >Yeah. These are fair use anyway, but they keep asking, so we put a
> > >blanket permission on the press page of wikimediafoundation.org ;-)
> >
> > If they keep asking, especially where they could ignore us and claim free
> > use, then we keep cooperating. It gives us an access into these news
> > organisations where we have been reasonable with their requests and to
> > reciprocate they simply have to listen to us. If we're generous about use of
> > the logos and just ask for a right to reply we're going to catch a lot more
> > media groups. They may want to run the bad press because it generates the
> > page views, but if WMF is saying, "let us have our say and you can use the
> > logo" then they are going to come to us for comment.
> >
> > If you can understand that not all bad press is bad for the foundation then
> > you probably understand what I'm trying to get at. From my perspective one
> > of the last things we want to do is make the press think we are secretive or
> > likely to hide things from them.
> >
> >
> > Brian McNeil
> >
> >
> >
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>