Mark,

I was the primary designer for the LbNA logo and, as such, would be
the person most likely to claim ownership for it. In reality,
however, my design was driven by a group effort that occurred on the
Letterbox USA talk list. Therefore, I have always considered it to
be a "by the people, for the people" sort of thing, and have publicly
stated on more than one occasion that it belongs to the entire LbNA
community. I realize this is not a very practical notion from a
legal standpoint, but I wanted to make sure that localized groups,
such as the one you have mentioned, would feel free to use it in
their letterboxing pursuits.

So, as far as I'm concerned, you may feel free to use it... with the
following caveats:

1) If you're going to sell things with the logo on them, I feel you
should be obligated to give the money you make back to the
letterboxing community. In other words, use it to fund the expenses
for holding public get-togethers, etc., rather than supporting your
habits for such luxury items as food and clothing.

2) Out of respect for the extensive group effort that went into
designing the logo, I do not feel that you should alter or modify the
logo in any way. You should feel free to add other designs around
it, but I would hope that you would not distort it, recolor it, or
place other elements inside of it. The basic shape of the
characters, and the blue and green color scheme, in my eyes, are
somewhat sacred. To interfere with these elements would be
disrespectful to the original founding members of LbNA.

I hope that my opinion is helpful to you, and I hope that you will
take it to heart.

Cordially,
Der Mad Stamper

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Mark Pepe"
wrote:
>
> Hi boxers:
>
>
> At a recent gathering, a group came to me asking who owns the
rights
> to the LBNA logo that we all have seen a million times. This party
> wants to design our own Northeast version of the logo, like many
> other parts of the country currently have done.
>
> They also want to take it one step farther - and this is where it
> might get sticky. This group would like to make and sell T shirts,
> hats, etc with this newly designed LBNA Northeast logo. Again, I
> realize that this is currently being done elsewhere but these
boxers
> did not want to infringe on anything that might be copyrighted or
> owned by a certain individual or group.
>
> I emailed Randy, hoping to get an answer but he said ownership of
the
> logo is hazy at best and he wasn't sure. He suggested I place a
post
> to this talk list as well as emailing the Webmasters at
> letterboxing.org so I've done both.
>
> This question is primarily directed to those of you who might have
> been in on this game since the beginning. I apologize for not
> emailing you all directly, but hoped to target you all in this much
> broader forum.
>
> You may email me directly with your responses.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mark Pepe

Dear Mr. Mad Stamper,

I'm glad to know who was responsible for designing that logo - I
really like the look of it! Maybe I'm too "brand" oriented, but it's
more fun for me when a hobby I participate in has such a professional-
looking logo and website. Kind of validates it in some weird way...
Anyway, thanks for a job well done!

Timbertoes

--- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Der Mad Stamper"
wrote:
>
> I was the primary designer for the LbNA logo and, as such, would be
> the person most likely to claim ownership for it. In reality,
> however, my design was driven by a group effort that occurred on
the
> Letterbox USA talk list. Therefore, I have always considered it to
> be a "by the people, for the people" sort of thing, and have
publicly
> stated on more than one occasion that it belongs to the entire LbNA
> community. I realize this is not a very practical notion from a
> legal standpoint, but I wanted to make sure that localized groups,
> such as the one you have mentioned, would feel free to use it in
> their letterboxing pursuits.
>
> So, as far as I'm concerned, you may feel free to use it... with
the
> following caveats:
>
> 1) If you're going to sell things with the logo on them, I feel
you
> should be obligated to give the money you make back to the
> letterboxing community. In other words, use it to fund the expenses
> for holding public get-togethers, etc., rather than supporting your
> habits for such luxury items as food and clothing.
>
> 2) Out of respect for the extensive group effort that went into
> designing the logo, I do not feel that you should alter or modify
the
> logo in any way. You should feel free to add other designs around
> it, but I would hope that you would not distort it, recolor it, or
> place other elements inside of it. The basic shape of the
> characters, and the blue and green color scheme, in my eyes, are
> somewhat sacred. To interfere with these elements would be
> disrespectful to the original founding members of LbNA.
>
> I hope that my opinion is helpful to you, and I hope that you will
> take it to heart.
>
> Cordially,
> Der Mad Stamper
>
> --- In letterbox-usa@yahoogroups.com, "Mark Pepe"
> wrote:
> >
> > Hi boxers:
> >
> >
> > At a recent gathering, a group came to me asking who owns the
> rights
> > to the LBNA logo that we all have seen a million times. This
party
> > wants to design our own Northeast version of the logo, like many
> > other parts of the country currently have done.
> >
> > They also want to take it one step farther - and this is where it
> > might get sticky. This group would like to make and sell T
shirts,
> > hats, etc with this newly designed LBNA Northeast logo. Again, I
> > realize that this is currently being done elsewhere but these
> boxers
> > did not want to infringe on anything that might be copyrighted or
> > owned by a certain individual or group.
> >
> > I emailed Randy, hoping to get an answer but he said ownership of
> the
> > logo is hazy at best and he wasn't sure. He suggested I place a
> post
> > to this talk list as well as emailing the Webmasters at
> > letterboxing.org so I've done both.
> >
> > This question is primarily directed to those of you who might
have
> > been in on this game since the beginning. I apologize for not
> > emailing you all directly, but hoped to target you all in this
much
> > broader forum.
> >
> > You may email me directly with your responses.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Mark Pepe

>
> 1) If you're going to sell things with the logo on them, I feel
you
> should be obligated to give the money you make back to the
> letterboxing community. In other words, use it to fund the expenses
> for holding public get-togethers, etc., rather than supporting your
> habits for such luxury items as food and clothing.


Mitch -
We could not agree more with this! I'm sure that proceeds could
certainly be used wisely to better letterboxing for all. Actually, is
someone still paying for the web space for letterboxing.org? I seem
to remember talking to someone some time ago that mentioned this.

Is there any need to put some sort of logo disclaimer on
letterboxing.org?

-Steve (and Heidi, Madras, and Grace)