On 3/1/06, Ben Yates bluephonic@gmail.com wrote:
Poking my head in:
I don't have an particular argument, but this whole discussion feels very wrong. Wikipedia should not be acting like a corporation -- it is not trying to make a profit; its mission is to spread knowledge. Period.
The Wikimedia Foundation *is* a corporation, and it should act like one. That said, I'd describe the problem here is more a lack of Wikimedia acting like a corporation.
A corporate response to this would be simple, they'd refer the situation to their licensing department - not argue about it on a public mailing list. A corporation would have a written trademark licensing policy which any volunteers who want to poke their heads into things could refer to (the referral Ant gave to board@wikimedia.org serves nearly the same purpose, though).
Anthony