[New-imc] Re: [Imc-legal] trademark summary (?)

[SuZQ]

The question was, how to respond to beachcitiesimc.

I cannot stress enough, how much I am utterly and totally opposed
to the idea of policing Indymedia as a trademark!  What would we
trademark: the letters IMC?  We can't.  Other companies have already
claimed them.  The word "Indymedia"?  The legal right to cyber-squat has
already been established, and unless we first buy up all the domain names
that could be mistaken for indymedia, we don't have a claim there.  The little
"I" radio-tower logo?  Many of the IMCs don't even use that!  IMC Philly,
IMC DC, IMC New York, the ad-hoc IMC Cancun ... they use radio waves
emitting from other objects ... the image is an idea, not a logo!  And
copyright is a "use it or lose it" right ... you can not selectively
prosecute some for copyright violation because you don't like their
opinions, while allowing others to freely violate your copyright.

Listen, the Independent Media Center was formed on the basis of the ideas
of open-source software, copyleft, open-publishing ... in short,
everything that replaces intellectual property rights with freedom of
communication rights!  To prosecute someone for violating our intellectual
property rights would be totally counter to that spirit!  Freedom of
speech does not only apply to leftists!

Nobody in their right mind could confuse Beach Cities IMC for a real
indymedia site.  If they do, at worst they'll attempt to publish on its
newswire and get frustrated that all of their posts have to be "approved
by an editor" before publication, and try one of the other links, allowing
them to get actively involved in the real IMC process!  If it brings
Indymedia publicity among right-wingers and libertarians, good for us!
Maybe they'll learn something and maybe they'll become volunteers.

Beach Cities IMC is obviously a fake in the spirit of guerrilla
communication.  To respond to such a fake with the threat of legal action
would be to lose, ideologically, to their attempted subversion.

Listen, I have personally witnessed the intervention of the State and the
Courts into the free spread of information.  I have seen brutal
police raids on IMCs, journalists beaten and nearly killed, and equipment
smashed and confiscated.  I myself have been imprisoned for political
speech.  Just this morning, riot police raided the infoshop I was at,
because they thought a banner hanging from a window was offensive.  _I_ _will_
_block_ _consensus_, in any forum that I can, on _ANY_ proposal to
prosecute ANY media group, leftist or right-wing, for violation
of intellectual property rights!

Very pissed off,
SuZQ

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003, John Windmueller wrote:

> So it sounds like...
>
> 1. We already have some common law claims to the trademark.
>
> 2. We can gain more rights, and more easily guarantee the enforcement of
> those rights in a court case, if we register our trademark.
>
> 3. Registering the trademark will cost $350(ish) and will require legal
> assistance.
>
> 4. After registering the trademark, we will need to (a) actively
> patrol/police trademark use of any groups misappropriating it and (b)
> keep a record of that policing.
>
> 5. We can currently help our situation by encouraging IMC's to include
> (sm) with the logo, and if we register the mark we then could use (r).
>
>
> If the group thinks it's a good idea to go forward, I think it would
> make sense to have these TO DO items.
>
> 1. Put a proposal on IMC-Process (or Imc-Finance?) that explains the
> need/benefit for applying for the trademark and outlines the general
> policy for how it will be enforced.  I think the proposal will need to
> address two questions that haven't been settled yet: who/what legal
> entity will hold the rights and what imc group (new or existing) will be
> responsible for doing the labor of enforcing the trademark.
>
> 2. Someone will need to locate an attorney for legal assistance
> (hopefully free assistance, or else the cost of legal assistance would
> need to go into the proposal).
>
> 3. Check written for the trademark search/application.
>
>
> Are there additional bits of information that should go into the
> summary?  Additional to-do items?
> Volunteers to take responsibility for any of the to-do items?
>
> John
>
>
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