Concerning Logos and Trademark enforcement. This is an area that I think we often have muddled thinking about. I would like to throw out a few rambling thoughts and get some feedback if possible.
I think that those of us that are for Free Software are not for using Trademarks to try and turn Free Software into non-Free Software. Essentially to make Free Software behave like non-Free Software or to make a vendor lock in play on grounds other than satisfaction, etc. (If you are a Free Software person, do you agree with that thought?) I think there is a general mistrust of the whole logo / trademark / branding exclusive play to increase value and shut out other players. What I think we sometimes miss in our dislike of these trademark plays is the positive benefits to the people who "acquire" trademarked goods and services when they are used in what I consider to be a proper way as it relates to Free Software. (Perhaps in general too.) And that is that it enables them to know who they are dealing with. Now, is it possible under current law and practices to grant wide ranging rights to our trademarks so long as the users of our marks do not confuse the public as to who they are actually dealing with? If so, would that be a reasonable policy and standard to adopt? Just off the top of my head right now, say for instance with the whole firefox / iceweasel thing that went on. What if instead of doing what they did, the mozilla folks had created two similar logos. Basically the same, but one indicating "approved firefox" and one indicating "non-approved modded firefox" and made an easy way to compile with a flag so that people knew at a glance whether they were getting mozilla vetted firefox or not? (That making it easy to do versus a pain to do is important to my mind.) all the best, drew On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 10:05 PM, Donald Robertson <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Matt Lee <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Carsten Nørgaard wrote: >> > Having recently moved from OS X to Xubuntu, in fact my entire creative >> > workflow is GIMP/Inkscape/Scribus-based! :D >> > >> > >> > I have a few questions first: >> > >> > 1) Can I rebuild the logo with a new libre font, if I can find one? The >> > current font has an air of Comic Sans MS that fails to communicate >> > libre.fm as a serious effort. >> >> Hmmm. It's well established now, so I think not... but you can try to >> convince me. > > Speaking of the logo... I believe we have a separate assignment form for > logos, so remind me to find it for you on monday. I don't believe we enforce > trademarks or anything like that, but it's still a good idea to have the > logo assignment on the books. > > >> >> > 2) If I go and find a new typeface would it be preferable to use one of >> > the open source font licenses or will either “free for non-commercial >> > use” or “free for any use” be acceptable also? >> >> No, it must be under a free software/open source license. >> >> > 3) How free am I in my selection of colors? >> >> Try and use the existing red, but I'm open to suggestions. >> >> > 4) Will uploading the resulting files to the wiki be fine, should I >> > attach them here in stead or something else? >> >> Upload them to some web space, if you can. >> >> > Will get to work as soon as possible, first mockups will probably be how >> > user page content/stats are arranged and visualized, and something to >> > get a general feel for the new visual identity -- sounds ok? >> >> Great. >> _______________________________________________ >> Libre-fm mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.autonomo.us/mailman/listinfo/libre-fm > > > > -- > Cell Phone: 617-935-5071 > > _______________________________________________ > Libre-fm mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.autonomo.us/mailman/listinfo/libre-fm > > -- http://zotzbro.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ Libre-fm mailing list [email protected] http://lists.autonomo.us/mailman/listinfo/libre-fm
