howto using weberp logo

[dalescott]

Ok. I can chase this down so long as there is motivation to add a "Trademark and Logo Policy" to the website summarizing the rules. How is the structure of the project and website/forum determined? Should this be discussed on the developers list instead of in the forum? @phil?

Others may disagree, but I think there could easily come a day when in hindsight it would have been worth the effort to clarify legal aspects of the project. I personally would appreciate more legal clarity when pitching PLM using webERP. Even though I will be pitching to smaller disorganized design teams, they are often part of big services companies who get scared of any potential liability like the plague. Just explaining the GPL will be tough enough if "the boss" has to get permission!

The SVG webERP image in the WikiMedia Commons was created by "RafaelEChacon". I'll find his address in the mail list and email him directly about his SVG file. The entry claims the webERP logo dates from 2004, although the entry itself was only created last fall (Sept 2016).

I researched webERP.gif in the trunk branch of the repo, and got the following timeline:

• r2, 2004-02-23, original commit of webERP+ logo and file
  
• r194, 2005-02-01, changed logo to "webERP" (filename still webERP+.gif)
  
• r207, 2005-02-26, changed file name to webERP.gif
  
• r378, 2006-01-23, changed logo to rounded overlapping letters
  
• r476, 2007-05-20, changed to current logo
  

IMHO, I think ownership of the name webERP can be claimed from 2005-02-01 when the name changed from "webERP+" to "webERP", and ownership of the current logo can be claimed from 2007-05-20, when the image was committed into the codebase.

If I recall and understand the mail archives correctly, "weberp.org" is considered to be an entity, which "owns" the webERP name (the letters) and logos (graphic representations of the name). The committers to the Sourceforge "web-erp" project are taken to make up the "weberp.org" entity (and also share copyright of the codebase). Phil owns the weberp.org domain, essentially on behalf of the "weberp.org" entity. Is this an accurate summary of the situation?

Given this scenario, I think the listed "Author" for the SVG file in Wikimedia Commons should be "weberp.org", and the "Date" should be 2007-05-20. I'm not sure if the "CC Attribution- Share alike" license is appropriate in the first place for visual images (it may be that a modified image is treated as an inherently different image), and it may be useful to discourage other logos by changing the license to "CC Attribution-NoDerivatives", implying someone can't change the logo unless they're willing to fork the project and change its name. However, IANAL!

By the way, I noticed there is a draft webERP article on the English Wikipedia that references the SVG file (See "File usage on other wikis"). There are released articles in the Spanish and Portuguese Wikipedia's, and I see Raphael and others are actively working on all three. Is there a plan underway to have the English page released?

Finally, and again IMHO, I think specifically describing the project's governance model on the website would also add clarity for larger organizations (i.e. the ones with lawyers). Based on my perception of how things run, it only needs to say that Phil is the project leader, providing leadership but also the sole authority for repo privileges, and the ultimate authority should consensus not be reached among the committers and a decision is required. Is this an accurate understanding?

To wrap things up, I've included a picture show. ;-)

Cheers!
Dale

1. 2004-02-23 Original webERP+ logo



2. 2005-02-01 New webERP logo, dropped the "+"



3. 2006-01-23 Changed to rounded lower-case logo



4. 2007-05-20 Changed to current logo (this is Rafael's SVG derived work on Mediawiki Commons).