The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Deeplinks Blog reports that the Wikimedia Foundation has demanded that Wikipedia Art, a site commenting on art and Wikipedia, cease using the domain name “wikipediaart.org” on the grounds that the domain name violates the Wikimedia Foundation’s trademarks.
Last February, a pair of artists, working with several collaborators, created a Wikipedia article and invited the general public to add to it, following Wikipedia’s standards of credibility and verifiability. The work was intended to comment on the nature of art and Wikipedia. But Wikipedia editors did not take kindly to the project, and it was shut down within fifteen hours for being insufficiently “encyclopaedic.”
Fast forward a couple of months. The artists, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern, have created a noncommercial website that documents the project, called Wikipedia Art. The domain name for the project: wikipediaart.org.
Yep, they used the term “wikipedia” in their domain name. “Wikipedia” is a trademark owned by the Wikimedia Foundation. And now the Foundation has demanded that the artists give up the domain name peaceably or it will attempt to take it by (legal) force.
I fail to see any trademark problems here. Trademark law exists to avoid confusion among customers with regard to brands, logos, and names. Based on the EFF’s article, it appears that all this site was doing was using the name to refer to the site itself, not host a faux Wikipedia or deceive Wikipedians into going to Wikipedia Art instead. The site itself even has a disclaimer at the top of the page denying any involvement with Wikipedia. I for one am grateful that the EFF has not overlooked their principles on free speech just because the site in question just happens to be Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation should retract their accusations and apologize immediately (or at the very least provide an explanation for this action).
April 24th, 2009 at 19:26
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April 24th, 2009 at 21:07
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April 26th, 2009 at 16:42
The disclaimer was added to persuade Wikimedia to stop demanding that the site be handed over to them.
Even without it the site is non-commercial, critical, artistic and very unlikely to confuse. It is protected speech, and Wikimedia seem to have ignored this fact *because* it is an art project rather than simple abuse.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:55
If I remember correctly if your are not deemed as defending enough your trademarked brand, the trademark can be revoked (or something along thoses lines but IANAL ~ Does someone knows more ?). It could shed a new perspective of this case, even if it’s ethically arguable.
(and sorry for the bad english)
April 28th, 2009 at 12:31
Yes, this is why I think there needs to be a recognizable “free” license for trademarks, so that you can use it with an unmodified product without fear of being sued.
May 1st, 2009 at 22:41
I’ve been close to the Wikipedia Art story since day one. You might want to read my interviews with the two artists. Are the artists ‘trolls’as Jimmy Wales has called them? I don’t think so– not anymore than some of the longtime Wikipedia editors who mark articles about artists as not notable even though the subjects of the articles have exhibited in museums and so on.
On Wikipedia a baseball player who only played one game is considered notable, a politician who never won an election can be notable without question– but artists who have exhibited in a few museums often have articles about them questioned or speedy deleted unless they have been reviewed in the New York Times or one of the longstanding art magazines. That appears to happen often.
Read:
http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2009/02/wikipedia-art-virtual-fireside-chat.html
http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2009/04/art-space-talk-scott-kildall-and.html
July 3rd, 2009 at 23:21
Thoughtful post and well written. Please write more on this if you have time.