Anyone know what the legal status of bus route colours is, in terms of their exact hex code? https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:colour
Our local #Oxford UK bus company has some official route colours, it seems: https://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/services/park-ride. I’m sort of assuming we can’t just pick those colours off their website and paste the hex code into colour=* on the main route relation, since it’s part of somebody’s branding and stuff.
#OpenStreetMap @openstreetmap@a.gup.pe @openstreetmap@lemmy.ml
@achadwick @openstreetmap@a.gup.pe @openstreetmap@lemmy.ml
It… would be weird if colours on their own could be copyrighted. Like somebody holding a copyright on #FFFFFF.
@richlv @achadwick @openstreetmap@a.gup.pe @openstreetmap@lemmy.ml I am sure, the Coca Cola red and the Siemens petrol are copyrighted ore trademarks. They are nt equal to normed colors (RAL in Germany) but certainly RGB values.
Private use may not be a probleme, commercial may. I am not a lawyer at last.
@karlos @achadwick @openstreetmap@a.gup.pe @openstreetmap@lemmy.ml
Ah yeah, looks like you can trademark a colour for use in a particular industry: https://thehustle.co/can-a-corporation-trademark-a-color/ .
In case of OSM, that would be the same as using company names. When we map McDonald’s, Target or Lidl, we use the trademarked names.
IANAL, but it seems like colours would be similar.
Perhaps @simon has a better take :)
@richlv @karlos @achadwick @openstreetmap@a.gup.pe @openstreetmap@lemmy.ml protecting a colour as a trademark isn’t anything new. But in the case of the use in question I would at least check if that is actually the case since it is not without effort and quite expensive.
Nominative use would still be allowed when necessary.