Re: The Hugo Awards and trademarks

[starlady]

Many other people have said things I agree with, especially fairestcat, about the bullshit from the WSFS about how AO3 contributors shouldn't refer to ourselves as winners of a tiny fraction of a Hugo Award. The short answer is they're wrong, we are, and we already got our fangirl cooties all over their serious phallic rocket. And they can't change that AO3 did win and we are here; their own fucking members, many of whom are AO3 contributors themselves, voted us the award. Die mad, assholes.

But. I do want to specifically say that the WSFS claims about their trademarks and about U.S. trademark laws are a steaming pile of horseshit. Trademarks are specifically different from copyright and the standards for their use and violation (or "dilution," depending on the case) are in many cases much more stringent. I am not a lawyer, and even I know this. There's a post made on AO3 by a dude who is apparently a trademark lawyer which attempts to obfuscate the specific argument about dilution of trademarks that the WSFS is trying to make, and it's a bunch of unrelated examples that don't apply to this situation. (I also strongly question his professional judgment in making that post; it seems unwise, and he's also specifically not counsel for the WSFS so can't actually comment on specifics.) Furthermore, a trademark cannot be used to compel protected speech (i.e. jokes on Twitter). This is another piece of WSFS' history of overreaching on trademarks, but here's the thing: we don't have to be cowed just because of random dudes making long, serious-seeming posts, even if they have a JD. If there's one thing the OTW and the AO3 have stood for and proved over the past decade and change, it's that we can do things for ourselves. And we can do some pretty amazing things!

I'm not even getting into the fact that as far as I can tell the WSFS has registered its precious trademarks only in the U.S. and the EU (which undoubtedly has different standards for trademarks that I don't know, and I'd bet a good chunk of change the WSFS has no idea about either). Despite the fact that they're allegedly so concerned about these trademarks' dilution, they haven't even registered them in the country hosting the next Worldcon, and they've apparently let them expire in Canada. They're also not registered in Australia, which has hosted Worldcon four times already, the most recent in 2010.

All of which is to say that their claims about this whole kerfuffle being about trademarks are obviously bullshit--Kevin didn't even start mentioning trademarks until the comments on the AO3 news post--but also that merchandise, whether it be pins, T-shirts, badge ribbons, or whatever, using the phrase(s) "Hugo Award(s)" is totally legal in most of the world. Including New Zealand. And that even though they're trying to gatekeep us out of their precious science fiction, we're already inside the gates. And this too shall pass. And in the meantime, we are still all winners of a tiny fraction of a Hugo Award, because we built the AO3 ourselves, whether as volunteers or creators. Here's to us. We're pretty damn awesome.

Comments

[sovay]

the bullshit from the WSFS about how AO3 contributors shouldn't refer to ourselves as winners of a tiny fraction of a Hugo Award.

I have been under a rock for several weeks (and also, I suspect, in different internet spaces) and had not seen the bullshit. Thanks for the précis. Also, seriously.

[lizbee]

Truthfully, following this whole thing, I've gone from, "Well, obviously creating and selling merch is a bit of a dick move and should be shut down" to "I should definitely create some designs and borrow a badge machine." Maybe I'll earn enough to buy a bottle of Australian sparkling wine, speaking of trademarks which are actually enforced in this country.

(Champagne, if you were wondering. A friend of mine used to be the assistant to the lawyer in charge of defending that one.)

[qem_chibati]

It’s probably worth pointing out, but even Kevin admitted (after a week of wankiing) that he wasn’t speaking officially in the comments on the news post. So the actual official position is as far as I can tell only about the pins, With a bunch of wanky people using this as an opportunity to speak out and officially.

(Specifically, he seems slightly better about differences in vision, and was asked to leave his official role and is only doing the camera in the next business meeting.)

For New Zealand crowd that’s running world con this year, have basically only said a comment on the matter as far as I can tell have only officially said “welcome, please don’t do merchandise”.

So it’s not everyone in the WSFS, but a bunch of wankers who found one legit issue to try and bulldoze their not legit issues through.