The Android Robot logo is not really free
During the last weeks I’ve been reading a little bit about the definition of “Free Cultural Works” created by freedomdefined.org. This cloudy afternoon while I was writting a report for the Master on Libre Software about the use of trademarks on libre software I found a couple of posts that commented that the Android Robot logo is free as in free software and I don’t agree.
According to the branding guidelines the logo above “Can be used, reproduced, and modified freely in marketing communications. When using the Android Robot or any modification of it, proper attribution is required under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license.” Ok, it is licensed under a CC license that fits the freedoms detailed in freedomdefined.org but as far as I understand those are only applicable in marketing communications as it is stated in the first sentece.
In any case trademarks and free cultural works seem to be incompatible concepts due to the fact that all the entities want/need to preserve a unique mark that identifies them to the consumer. Would it be better if the Android logo is a free cultural work? To be honest, I have no idea.
