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Originally Posted by David Kelly
Actually, you do not have permission to change the logo in any manner you want to. Free speech does not apply to changing a logo to degrade someone or an organization.
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Annoying as it may be, under U.S. law (more specifically, case law), most parody is protected. For example, this is allowed:
(From Copley News Service)
A higher standard than "degradation" is necessary to judge infringement; notably, the unsanctioned user should not associate a trademark with something obscene, nor should they confuse potential customers by using a mark. To do as mtrawls described, it would likely not be infringement, provided that it wasn't being used to promote another FIRST-like organization, and provided that the "expression" (in lieu of "FIRST") wasn't an obscene word or phrase.
See
here and
here, for examples.
By quoting the rulebook, you are referring to things that FIRST doesn't like--but can't enforce outside of the competition. They would be within their rights to place sanctions on a team that violated the rules--but a random citizen would not be bound by these regulations.
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Originally Posted by David Kelly
Saying that you can change the FIRST logo (of any other logo of a company or organization) because of freedom of speech is quite a lame excuse. Infact, it is against the law, and is the reason that we have the registered trademarks etc in the first place. |
It is therefore neither against the law, nor lame. You have a First Amendment for a reason.