Re: Stolen debian twirl at www.elektrostore.se

[Andrew Shugg <andrew@neep.com.au>]

Jimmy Nilsson said:
> Hello
> 
> I'm sorry if I use the wrong e-mail to adress this issue
> but I couldn't find any other which I thought I could use
> to bring up this.
> 
> I don't know if it matters to the Debian team or if there
> is any copyright on the debian twirl but it seems as a
> swedish site has stolen it and is currently using it in
> their website logo. the adress to the page in question is
> http://www.elektrostore.se
> 
> And the twirl is exactly the same, only it's turned counter
> clockwise some degrees.
> 
> Sorry if this is the wrong person to write to, but I thought
> it should be brought to your attention.
> 
> Regards Jimmy Nilsson

Thanks for the report; the Debian swirl is covered by an "open license"
as described at <http://www.debian.org/logos/>, which describes what it
_can_ be used for, but doesn't say that derived works are not allowed.

Maybe you could write a polite note to the webmaster of that site, and
ask them if they are aware of the similarity between their logo and the
Debian logo which was published in 1999.  It's entirely possible that
the company themselves didn't steal it, but that they got a 'design
group' in to do their site and make a logo for their company, and it was
those people who nicked the swirl logo, inverted the colours and rotated
it a bit.  I would always be prepared to give them the benefit of the
doubt first off.  =)

Perhaps they can have a "we are not related to Debian" disclaimer with a
link to the Debian site.  That might make everyone happy!  Meanwhile you
can check the (web) archives of the debian-legal list, where you email
was forwarded to, and see if it's stirred anything up ...

Andrew.

-- 
Andrew Shugg <andrew@neep.com.au>                   http://www.neep.com.au/

"Just remember, Mr Fawlty, there's always someone worse off than yourself."
"Is there?  Well I'd like to meet him.  I could do with a good laugh."