Slashdot Mirror
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."
For those too young to remember... 'open sores' is a reference to a User Friendly comic. I miss that comic.
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
Slashdot uses the OSI logo as seen on this very story, so I wonder what the rules are on that.
The OSI web site FAQ says:
What about logo usage not linking to OSI?
Well, I read about Nominative Use and ... don't understand.
Seems like dilution to me, but IANAL, etc.
Also, it says the symbol can be used for linking to the OSI website.
Finally, it seems that the logo is to be accompanied by the text, "We recommend using the Futura Md BT Medium fonts as complementary fonts to the OSI Logo."
Having rambled on through all that, I have to assume Slashdot is in compliance and I'm too tired to make sense of it all.
Open source groups bickering over something insignificant? Really? Better fork it!
While the open-source movement itself has been under constant attack from patent trolls, copyright trolls, trolls of all sizes and from all sides, now we have this ....
PLEASE, GIVE ME A BREAK !!!
STOP BEING SO MOTHER-FUCKING CHILDISH !!!
I sincerely hope that there are still some adults left in the OSI and it's time for the adults to lead the movement
WE ARE TIRED OF ALL THE COPYRIGHT / LOGO / PATENT DISPUTES !!!
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Yup.
Shitty situation, but I can actually see OSIs point. If I saw the OSHWA logo without prior background I probably would assume it was some how tied to OSI due to the similarity, which kinda defeats the whole point of a trademark.
Also as I understand it, when it comes to trademarks if you don't make efforts to protect it, you lose it.
Hopefully they come to some kind of amicable agreement. I think both sides are reasonable enough that they can come up with some way to fix this without us reading about the ongoing court battle for the next 2 years.
The logos look similar enough (in my opinion) that people might assume they are related. The way trademarks work is that if you let others use them without any kind of control over how they are used, you lose them. So the options the OSI has is to let go of their trademark altogether or to come to some kind of agreement with the OSHWA about the conditions under which the similar logo can be used. The problem with the former is that they would then be unable to prevent anyone from using their logo, even on software that is not open source. The article says negotiations between the two groups are in progress. I don't see anything wrong here, unless you're opposed to the concept of trademarks itself.
Somewhere between one guy coding in his bedroom to "there's a committee for that", something goes wrong. You know the definition of politics? It's what happens when more than two people gather in one place.
Seconded.
Not only is the logo too similar, but frankly it sucks. To the uninitiated it looks like a broken gear. You can only imagine the jokes down the road whenever something doesn't work.
For all its merits, graphic design is one of those areas where the open source movement lacks serious talent.
So, a few things are evident.
OSI have a point, the logos are so similar as to imply a connection / sponsorship. (Look at TFA, the similarities are really striking.)
OSHWA almost certainly must have been intending the similarity.
OSHWA didn't seek out approval in advance.
Thus, to keep their trademark, OSI are compelled to protect it. But this makes one wonder, what about OSHWA does OSI not like? Otherwise, one would think they would extend a license to the trademark. Alternatively I suppose that OSHWA might not want to abide by any restrictions set by OSI on use of the mark, but then I'm curious what restrictions were proposed.
There has to have been some conversation already, right?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
It has been doing reruns for a quite a while now. But I still read 'em. :D
I happened to be grabbing a fresh copy of Jetty and noticed that Codehaus's logo has the same keyhole.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
The vast majority of what is being released as OSHW is most certainly not represented in HDL. As nice as they are, FPGAs are not cheap and most OSHW tends to cater to the hobbyist market (think SparkFun, Adafruit, etc), which is mostly people that do not have any formal educational background in electrical engineering, and thus have likely never heard of HDL anyways. What you're dealing with here is largely simple electrical schematics and accompanying PCB layout files (usually made in Eagle or Kicad) that have the gear logo on the silkscreen. The Arduino is the classic example, although ironically enough it doesn't actually have the gear logo on the silkscreen. The recommended license is CC (with the exception of -NC variants -- a policy I happen to disagree with, but that's quite off-topic).
3D model files (largely from Thingverse) is a whole other field of OSHW, but those don't generally have the OSHW logo stamped directly on them like a PCB silkscreen does.
Sadly, no. There hasn't been a new strip in years. For example, today's strip is a rerun from 2001.
-- This sig is only a test. If this were a real sig it would say something witty. --
Are you being sarcastic? The open source hardware one is a light blue semi-circle with squared off here, reminds me of the KDE logo except it's missing a bottom tooth. The open source initiative one is a green semi-circle with a dark green outline and no teeth. There is no way the two could be confused.
the issue is not that they could be confused but that they look extremely related. the similarity of the logo together with the text arrangement makes it look as if the organizations represented with these logos are related - which they are not.
it seems extremely likely that the open source hardware logo was directly inspired by the OSI logo and tries on purpose to look very similar.
Oh you want to watch 'em foam like rabid dogs,
Yet more anti-FOSS FUD from Hairyfeet.
Here's the reality"
The current leadership of the Open Source Initiative (OSI, opensource.org) has brought to our attention that they feel the Open Source Hardware ‘gear’ logo infringes on their trademark.
US Trademark law requires OSI to protect their mark and to notify potential infringers when they become aware of them. OSI has indicated that they would grant a trademark license to OSHWA. This would give OSI the means to protect their trademark.
http://www.oshwa.org/
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
or the OSI can apply the same principles to their logo as they want you to apply to your software - the gear does look similar to the OSI logo, intentionally so I should think, so the same broad design can be identifiable as an open-source-something.
I can't really see that the OSHWA logo somehow dilutes the OSI "brand" at all. If anything, you now have 2 different-but-nicely-similar logos that enhance each other.
The article says negotiations are still ongoing after a year, this should have been a "yay, that's great" story at the beginning with the 2 groups supporting their common goals.
I'm OSI's current president. Here are the facts that are missing from the OP: