0 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: The history of the /r/xkcd kerfuffle.
Well, depends what you mean by "based on". An obvious solution here is to make Randall a super-mod of /r/xkcd, and maybe *directly* derived things like /r/xkcdwhatif (if it existed), and *not* of other reddits which parody it, or otherwise comment on it.
It's like the fair use exemption in copyright law -- or whatever the equivalent is for trademarks. I can talk about Coke all I like without running afoul of trademark law, so long as I'm not pretending to *be* Coke or to *represent* Coke. This is likely not actually a trademark issue, but that's how I'd handle it.
Trademarks are a violation of free speech. They're an *actual* violation of free speech -- you have zero legal right to free speech on Reddit, and zero legal recourse if the admins step in, but trademark law is the thing that stops you from making *your own* separate website where you pretend to be speaking on behalf of Coke.
And I think that's okay. I think trademarks are *exactly* the sort of thing that *should* restrict our speech.
I don't know if /r/xkcd would be covered under actual trademark law, but if Reddit *did* decide to treat it as if it were, /r/xkcd would be Randall's, and /r/xkcdsucks would be left entirely alone.
Comment by badbrownie at 09/02/2014 at 16:34 UTC
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I'm not a libertarian. I hate their stance on the environment and the economy. But I do like their hands-off approach to censorship. What you're proposing sounds simple when you title it 'an obvious solution' but I think that it's implementation as policy is an impossible needle to thread well.