Gentoo Archives: gentoo-nfp

From: David Abbott <abbottdavid@×××××××××.net>
To: gentoo-nfp <gentoo-nfp@l.g.o>
Cc: licenses@g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-nfp] Reconsider the license of the "g" logo (item for Trustees meeting)
Date: Mon, 07 Nov 2016 17:28:35
Message-Id: CACs9S6Y9V6p0GoH-NnWewVuCAk0aSBWvMPYpR_-_sktVD6cNLA@mail.gmail.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-nfp] Reconsider the license of the "g" logo (item for Trustees meeting) by Ulrich Mueller
1 On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 9:20 AM, Ulrich Mueller <ulm@g.o> wrote:
2 > tl;dr Consider relicensing the blue "g" logo [1] and the red "gentoo"
3 > logo [2] under CC-BY-SA-2.5 (or 3.0).
4 >
5 > Currently, different versions of the "g" logo are distributed under
6 > different licenses. The vector version [3] is distributed under
7 > CC-BY-SA-2.5, but the Blender version [1] under CC-Sampling-Plus-1.0.
8 > I would like to ask Trustees to reconsider their decision (taken in
9 > the 2010-08-15 meeting) on the license of the Blender version, for the
10 > following reasons.
11 >
12 > [Most of the following is taken from my comments in [4]. Repeating and
13 > complementing it here for convenience.]
14 >
15 > 1. Creative Commons have retired their Sampling-Plus licenses on
16 > 2011-09-12, see [5] and [6] for details.
17 >
18 > 2. CC-Sampling-Plus-1.0 is incompatible with most free licenses,
19 > including all versions of CC-BY and CC-BY-SA. Consider the following
20 > example: A Gentoo developer gives a talk at a conference, and licenses
21 > it under CC-BY-SA-3.0. The original image of the "g" logo is used on
22 > the title page, and a lightened version is used as page background.
23 > Now, since CC-Sampling-Plus-1.0 is incompatible with CC-BY-SA-3.0, the
24 > slides cannot be distributed at all. I doubt that this is the result
25 > which is desired in this scenario.
26 >
27 > 3. Two different legal tools are mixed here, namely copyright and
28 > trademark protection. Note that there are large corporations whose
29 > logo doesn't meet the threshold of originality [7,8] or where
30 > copyright has expired [9]. These logos are in the public domain,
31 > as far as copyright is concerned, but there is trademark protection
32 > nevertheless. Apparently, these corporations don't think that the
33 > missing copyright protection of their logo would dilute their brand.
34 >
35 > 4. I doubt that having different licenses (namely CC-Sampling-Plus-1.0
36 > and CC-BY-SA-2.5) for versions of the logo that have only slightly
37 > different visual appearance could help protecting the Gentoo brand.
38 > Someone who is using the vector version in violation of the Name and
39 > Logo Usage Guidelines could argue that these don't apply to the vector
40 > version, because the Gentoo Foundation itself makes a distinction
41 > between the two versions.
42 > Therefore, I'd rather see all versions of the "g" logo treated the
43 > same (and licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.5), with a clarification added to
44 > the Guidelines that these are only differently rendered versions of
45 > the same (trademarked) logo. In fact, from the drawing submitted to
46 > the USPTO [10] it is impossible to distinguish to which of the two
47 > versions of the logo the trademark would apply.
48 >
49 > 5. Finally, I find CC-Sampling-Plus a curious choice of a license
50 > for our logo. It encourages distribution of derivative works that are
51 > "highly transformative of the original". IMHO, this is the last thing
52 > one would want for a trademarked logo. Indeed it directly contradicts
53 > the Name and Logo Usage Guidelines which explicitly forbid variations
54 > "that change the aspect ratio or otherwise distort the shape" [11].
55 >
56 > In conclusion, please consider relicensing the Blender version of the
57 > blue "g" logo [1] under CC-BY-SA-2.5, identical to the vector version.
58 > (Alternatively, version 3.0 of the same license could be used, which
59 > would agree with the license used for most of our documentation.
60 > Double licensing under || ( CC-BY-SA-2.5 CC-Sampling-Plus-1.0 ) would
61 > be possible, too.)
62 >
63 > Most of the above arguments also apply to the red "gentoo" logo [2]
64 > which contains the "g" as its first letter.
65 >
66 > Ulrich
67 >
68 >
69 > [1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Artwork/Artwork#The_blue_.22g.22_logo
70 > [2] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Artwork/Artwork#The_red_.22gentoo.22_logo
71 > [3] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Artwork/Artwork#Vector_version_.22g.22_logo
72 > [4] https://bugs.gentoo.org/293309 comments #23 and #29
73 > [5] http://creativecommons.org/retiredlicenses
74 > [6] http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/28874
75 > [7] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3M_wordmark.svg
76 > [8] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deutsche_Bank_logo_without_wordmark.svg
77 > [9] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mercedes_benz_logo_1926.png
78 > [10] http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78323020&docId=DRW20050429125158#docIndex=16&page=1
79 > [11] https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/name-logo-guidelines.html#merchandise
80
81 Hi Ulrich,
82
83 Added to the Nov meeting agenda.
84 https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Foundation:Meetings/2016/11#New_Business
85 --
86 David Abbott