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glitch-soc / mastodon

A glitchy but lovable microblogging server
https://glitch-soc.github.io/docs/
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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Should the branding be changed to remove references to mastodon? #2072

Open nanos opened 1 year ago

nanos commented 1 year ago

Pitch

It should be considered to remove the mastodon branding, and replace it with a glitch-soc branding.

Motivation

This is because of mastodon’s new-ish Trademark policy, which stipulates among others:

If you choose to build on or modify Mastodon's open-source code, beyond modifications limited to switching on or off features already included in the software, minor tweaks in visual appearance, translations into other languages, and bug fixes:

  • You must choose your own branding, logos, and trademarks that denote your unique identity so as to clearly signal to users that there is no affiliation with or endorsement by Mastodon gGmbH.
  • You may use word marks, but not our logos, in truthful statements that describe the relationship between your software and ours, for example "this software is derived from the source code of the Mastodon software".

There is some discussion on this here, including pointers to Mastodon GmbH threatening legal action against instances that appear to use the trademark inappropriately: https://mstdn.thms.uk/@michael/109648612451954629

Plastikmensch commented 1 year ago

Regardless of that policy, I'm in favor of having a glitch-soc branding. The issue is designing new logos and such is not easy.

ClearlyClaire commented 1 year ago

While it may make sense to have our own logo and branding, it's not a requirement, as I have obtained permission to continue using those in glitch-soc.

nanos commented 1 year ago

Oh, that's interesting and good to know. Thanks @ClearlyClaire !

louis77 commented 1 year ago

I moved our instance to glitch-soc and was made aware by an admin of another non-Mastodon instance that they were pressured to remove all Mastodon references from their fork. @ClearlyClaire do you have this permission in writing just in case we need it?

ClearlyClaire commented 1 year ago

We do.

leo60228 commented 5 months ago

While it may make sense to have our own logo and branding, it's not a requirement, as I have obtained permission to continue using those in glitch-soc.

Just for clarification: this also applies to the references to "Mastodon" that appear on instances running glitch-soc, right?