[Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia.ru & Wikimedia.de

[Erik Moeller]

Alex-
>> Using trademarks to restrain non-commercial activity is always wrong --

> Sorry this is clearly cofused thinking.

I understand the law. I am talking about the morality behind it. Trademark  
law should not allow a trademark holder to punish non-commercial activity  
going on under their brand.

> should everyone be allowed to name a sports
> competition after the Olympics?

Of course I should be allowed to start Erik's Garden Olympics or to call  
my open source game "Mega Olympics".

>> non-commercial groups are no real threat to us or our brand. If these
>> Russians are actually making money off our brand, that is another matter.

> They are posting links to porno web sites. Are they doing that for free?

I did not notice that. That changes my opinion about them.

> It has nothing to do with trademark law in Russia. It is a domain name
> registration that is covered by ICANN and WIPO.

I am strongly morally opposed to using the UDRP process to hijack domain  
names registered by others. Both ICANN and WIPO are insufficiently  
controlled anti-speech organizations that are primarily acting in  
corporate and government interests. Cooperating with them is like  
registering a software patent for the MediaWiki software.

Don't get me wrong: If we had a trademark on the Wikipedia name, I would  
support going after those who violate this trademark in their commercial  
self-interest. But we don't. For this reason I do not think we have moral  
grounds to stop them from using the name "Wikipedia", even if we could  
hijack the domain name using UDRP. We didn't tell people in advance:  
'Look, you can't use this name. It's ours.' I do not believe that we have  
some "natural right" to the name Wikipedia just because we've been  
operating under it for a while.

> That is true,  but one thing to keep in mind if you do nothing then
> you are encouraging the name of Wikipedia to be associated with
> click through links to pornographic web sites.

I'm not saying we should do nothing. I am saying we should ask them to  
hand over the name. If they don't do it voluntarily, we should ask them  
for the price they want. In the future, we should register a Wikipedia  
trademark, but we should not use it against those who do not act out of  
profit motives.

Regards,

Erik