Open-Source Movements Bicker Over Logo

colinneagle writes in with a story about open source organizations fighting over logos. "A gear logo proposed to represent and easily identify open-source hardware has caught the eyes of the The Open Source Initiative, which believes the logo infringes its trademark. The gear logo is backed by the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), which was formally established earlier this year to promote hardware innovation and unite the fragmented community of hackers and do-it-yourselfers. The gear mark is now being increasingly used on boards and circuits to indicate that the hardware is open-source and designs can be openly shared and modified. OSI has now informed OSHWA, which is acting on behalf of the open-source hardware community, that the logo infringes on its trademark. The issue at stake is a keyhole at the bottom of the open-source hardware logo, which resembles a keyhole at the bottom of the OSI logo. The gear logo was created as part of the contest hosted by the group that founded OSHWA, and the mark was released by its designer under a Creative Commons license, opening it up for the community to use on hardware."

Comments

Re:The most pathetic development in Open-Source

[ozmanjusri]

I sincerely hope that there are still some adults left in the OSI and it's time for the adults to lead the movement

Certainly more than there are in Slashdot.

If you made the effort to check the OSHWA site instead of the clickbait NetworkWorld beatup, you'd see there's no headbutting, just two teams working together to solve a mutual problem.

The OSHWA team have been offered a license to use the trademark, which would allow OSI to continue defending its mark as needed. Instead of the aggression implied by our sensationalist, error-ridden TFA, the reality is two groups of sensible people negotiating the best paths forward for both their communities.

This is truly ugly journalism. We should be discussing how crap like this is promoted to the frontpage of Slashdot, not pretending outrage at OSI and OSHWA.