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We have seen the rapidly eroding intellectual rights of the title
"GenWeb." There are now several entities that use the NCGenWeb, USGenWeb
and other variations in their logo. In order to make a differentiation
between our organization and the pretenders, the committee discussed this
issue at length.
It doesn't matter how many county pages have USGW logos or where they place
them -- if another organization is using "USGenWeb Project," "XXGenWeb
Project," or closely similar variations, they may be guilty of
trademark/service mark infringement. You could replace the index page of
every USGW county with a giant logo, and it will have no effect on what
another organization is doing. By the way, do you have any examples of
projects and/or pages with this sort of violation? I'd like to take a look
-- if they're county pages, it's possible that they're in violation of
their own project's guidelines if they're copying USGW logos.
There was one particular NCGenWeb page that was used as an example of
how
only grudging support is being given to the Project.
And in my opinion, that page is already in violation of the by-law as
currently written. There's no need to re-write the by-laws, only the
necessity of a way to enforce what we already have.
The intent is for the page to be recognizable as a member project of
the
USGWP. This can only be effectively achieved by making the logo visable
without scrolling. The specified minimum size (100 X 100) should not be
interpreted as the determining factor for page compliance. Some pages
currently make it difficult to determine who the sponsoring organization
is and further confuse the issue by using a hodge-podge of logos.
Sponsoring organization? My page doesn't exist thanks to the USGWP, the
USGWP exists thanks to my page and hundreds of others like it. Maybe I'm
being overly picky about the semantics, but the USGWP doesn't sponsor
me. If anyone sponsors me, I suppose you could say that Rootsweb does,
since they provide my webspace. I'm a volunteer and a member of the USGWP.
I think it's just silly to say that a page can't be recognizable as a USGWP
member unless the logo slaps you in the face. Again, we have dozens of
pages withing NCGW that have the logo further down the page, but there's no
doubt about their membership. Again, if you can't tell that a page belongs
to the USGWP, then it's already in violation of the by-law as is currently
written. Take it up with that particular webmaster.
Without entering a discussion regarding the future of the
organization, I
can only say that without immediate recognition of who we are, we could
become another genealogical entity suffering from lack of sponsorship.
Apples and oranges. If the USGWP is so pitiful and on such a shaky
foundation that my putting a logo "below the fold," so to speak, is going
to be catastrophic, then maybe we're all wasting our time trying to prop it
up.
There was no suggestion that page hosts abandon their current
affiliations
with other entities, only that the USGWP page be given its due and appear
preeminent. Further discussion (Section 2) will be devoted to other issues.
Ahhh, but call me suspicious. I tend to think that this "us first! us
first!" hue and cry is just the first step towards demanding an all or
nothing allegiance to the USGWP. And I don't like that, not one bit. I
don't think that's how you attract and keep hard-working volunteers. I
think it's far better to set the minimal requirements and then let your
volunteers run with it. Any organization that can't function unless the
members are basically caged is in deep trouble.
Angie
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