2008/11/25 Mike Godwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Your reasoning suggests (by analogy) that prosecutors who don't > prosecute every single offense, or policemen who don't arrest everyone > who might have committed offense, are somehow "contradictory" to > upholding the law. But that's not how the legal system works. We all > have legal rights and responsibilities, but, *just as important*, we > can choose where and when we will invoke them. That's not > "contradictory" -- that's at the very least prudence, and, one hopes > in the long run, it may even approach humanity and wisdom.
To add to what Mike says here: If someone applies for a right to use our trademark, then yes, we have to exercise due diligence and make sure it represents a product or service that we want to stand for with our name. If they don't apply and just use the mark, we may or may not be willing or able to enforce it, but it constitutes an unauthorized use of our mark and we can fully disclaim responsibility for the product or service it is used to represent. Take the recent example of the SOS Children's DVD: We authorized use of the Wikipedia puzzle globe and name for the product based on our pre-existing relationship with them, and then people pointed fingers at us when they felt that the organization wasn't interpreting the GFDL correctly or fairly. Something that's made in your name is associated with you, whether you like it or now. Personally, I'm not a huge friend of IP law, but I've always felt that the fundamental intentions of trademark law are benign and reasonable. I think that the free culture movement has to carefully think about middle ground approaches that make sense to meet the needs trademark law tries to address, such as: ensuring that people understand the difference between a product made or endorsed by us, and a product made by someone else without our involvement. This is where approaches such as secondary marks come in -- note the use of the puzzle piece in our fundraiser buttons. -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
