Re: I'll let the Freemasons know Debian is distributing their trademark
On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 11:44:13AM -0500, Brian Thomas Sniffen wrote:
> He might violate their trademarks -- say by proclaiming that he is
> selling Humvees when actually selling Pintos. But that's got nothing
> to do with Debian, and he'd be doing so whether or not this clip art
> were nearby.
Kind of makes Debian an accessory. Listen, everybody, these images are
no big freaking deal. You write the company, they're gonna say "who
cares? This little thing doesn't matter."
The approach -- taking something clearly what it is and using it unless
somebody tells you you can't or it's a big deal -- such as including the
NFL logo would be a big deal, including this isn't, makes me rather
uncomfortable.
It's like this Clip Art package is the kernel and these couple of random
images -- they are clearly what they are -- are unaudited contributions
by a few people that spoil the whole thing.
My intitution tells me that the picture of the McDonalds logo on the BBC
website and the inclusion of the FreeMason or Duracell or Rubik's cube
are different things. One is a case of journalism or fair use and the
other is a case of merchandising - making something more attractive and
encouraging you to use it because it's there.
But don't flame me, I get your point. I still have a queasy feeling
about it, though -- mostly what it represents. It's just not nice to
use other people's stuff and there's no good reason for a picture of a
rubik's cube to be in there. You should go ask the guy who made the
rubik's cube for a picture.
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