Re: [GNOME-India] Re: Request for permission for Logo usage

["Mahesh T. Pai" <paivakil vsnl net>]

Hi!! I have volunteered for building the pages for the gnime-in pages.
Syamindu's mail on the TM issue  was result of a private discussion we
had about use of the GNOME foot logo on our pages.

The  footer  at  www.gnome.org  says  `GNOME and  the  foot  logo  are
trademarks of the GNOME Foundation' which is what prompted me to raise
the issue.

All I wanted was  to use the foot logo as an icon  on the page. Now, I
realise that I have raised a hornet's nest. ;(

Alan Cox said on Mon, Feb 02, 2004 at 02:19:40AM +0000,:

 > Or perhaps the release team  should pull all the packages using the
 > gnome foot since there are no guidelines for its use.. games etc.

That is, IMHO, a serious bug in the logo usage policy.

 > Certainly a release  of a final 2.6 containing  them built into GPL
 > packages would be the end of a plausible trademark claim imho. (Yes
 > there are reasons vendors keep their logo packages seperate!)

Definitely yes. 

And I  am worried  that people may  create forks independent  of GNOME
(which is  perfectly alright  under the copyright  law) call  the fork
`GNOME', and  then use  the Gnome trademark  for the  unofficial fork.
Such  unauthorised  use of  the  trademark  can,  apart from  diluting
trademark protection  itself, can negate effects of  the disclaimer of
warranty clauses(*).

I  think Gnome  has a  lesson to  learn from  SPI and  Debian  on this
issue. Debian has  two logos - one the `swirl'  by itself, and another
the  `swirl above a  bottle'. The  latter is  trademarked, and  is not
distributed in Debian main. Only  the Debian Developers are allowed to
use the bottle+swirl logo(1).  OTOH,  the swirl logo comes with a very
liberal license(2). Details are at www.debian.org/logos/

Foot Notes:-

(*)  I  have  seen  lawyers  in the  US  paranoid  about  `disclaimer'
     provisions. Hence the issue.

1. The license for the swirl logo is:-

   Debian Open Use Logo License

   Copyright (c) 1999 Software in the Public Interest

   This logo or  a modified version may be used by  anyone to refer to
   the Debian project, but does not indicate endorsement by the project.

   Note:  we  would  appreciate  that  you  make  the  image  a  link  to
   http://www.debian.org/ if you use it on a web page.  

2. License for the swirl+bottle logo is:-

   Debian Official Use Logo License

   Copyright (c) 1999 Software in the Public Interest

   1. This logo may only be used if:
          * the product it is used for is made using a documented
   procedure as published on www.debian.org (for example official
   CD-creation) 
          * official approval is given by Debian for its use in this
   purpose  
   2. May be used if an official part of debian (decided using the
   rules in I) is part of the complete product, if it is made clear
   that only this part is officially approved 
   3. We reserve the right to revoke a license for a product 

   Permission  has  been given  to  use  the  official logo  on  clothing
   (shirts, hats, etc) as long as they are made by a Debian developer and
   not sold for profit.  

Neither license fits our purpose squarely.

-- 
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
                                          
  Mahesh T. Pai, LL.M.,                   
  'NANDINI', S. R. M. Road,               
  Ernakulam, Cochin-682018,               
  Kerala, India.                          
                                          
  http://in.geocities.com/paivakil         
                                          
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+