Playalove

Not that one, the one about registered trademarks and who owns them, us or Burning Man. Maybe more importantly is who has the right to own them. That is what a federal court will be deciding based on a law suit filed by John Law one of the founding three members of Burning Man against the other two, Larry Harvey and Michael Mikel. The argument is not new, it has made the rounds for years amongst burners but this is the first time it has become real. This will be decided and it will change Burning Man forever, or will it? It might not matter much and then again, it might. Burning Man is fighting hard to keep it’s logo’s and registered names protected from others using them for profit or promotion of “related” events. Burning Man is not a commodity, the logo of the man is as prevalent as the Nike Swish or Apple’s apple.  Just like those logo’s the Burning Man logo is seen on clothing, jewelry, stickers, web sites and I even saw it on a dog. The difference is that all those things were given or made with out profit intended. If the logo is allowed to be released to the public without the organization of Burning Man able to police how it is used some, say you for example, could start a festival in the Arizona desert say, and burn things, and call it Burning Man with a little man logo. Worse is that you could sell T-shirts and posters to people who attend for money, which if you are even a halfway decent burner you realize that is blasphemy.

John Law might mean well and he might not. The fact is that he does not get along with his former friends these days, does not attend the event and really doesn’t care about it, or does he? Maybe he wants to preserve the fact that Burning Man belongs to it’s citizens and they will do with it what they will. After all, Burning Man has evolved so much form the early days that it is barely recognizable from it’s origins of Baker Beach, then the early days of the Black Rock desert with people shooting guns. The event has evolved for the better, it is about love and community now with a gift based economy. It is in the eye’s of it’s population a sort of utopia really. The event is it’s people and it’s people will protect the event, they always have and they always will. So bring it on, let’s see how this evolves Burning Man to the next level, it has done nothing but get better every year. Let it burn!

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