[Foundation-l] Swedish Wikipedians removes Wikimedia logos

[Mike Godwin]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 4:31 PM, John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> In your earlier comment, which you have now snipped, you asserted that
> Sv.Wp was doing the wrong thing:
>
> "I hope no one thinks Swedish Wikipedians (or anyone else) is free to
> reuse the Volvo logo
> without a license."
>

Not quite. I think Sv.Wp is doing the right thing but with the wrong
justification.  And I was trying to say I don't think downstream re-users
should infer the appearance of the Volvo logo on Sv.Wp that they have the
right to reuse it as a public-domain image.

Do you now accept that it is quite possible that this logo could be
> appropriately tagged as PD and its use in Sv.Wp articles is congruent
> with their position about the removal of non-free WMF logos from
> articles?
>

I wouldn't say "quite possible," no.  I suspect Volvo's IP attorneys have a
different opinion about whether the Volvo logo is public-domain than perhaps
you do.

As I see the energy poured into the question of whether the Wikipedia should
use copyrighted and trademarked logos (which they are already licensed to
use!), I cannot help but agree with the sentiment expressed earlier that the
Swedish Wikipedians have come up with a solution in search of a problem.


--Mike