Tag Archives: rules

Jun 12 2013

Do Not Use The Words “Burning Man” [Updates]

Burning Man’s placement team have used their newsletter to clarify for us exactly what the rules are in relation to their trademark – helping explain how to get sued by Burning Man.

And it’s just like I was saying in the last post. See for yourself – amongst other restrictions, camp fundraisers may not use any photos from the event - of the camp, or anything else.

Originally, I posted this at dinner from my iPhone, and didn’t have time to expand. I just thought it was so relevant to the post I’d just done, quoting Scribe’s essential division of Burners into 2 camps – those who think the BMOrg should be a totalitarian state and the founders should get all the profits and control it from a closed room committee, beyond even SEC Securities Laws…and those who think we make the party, we are a stakeholder in the ownership of the intellectual property too. Read the latest statement of the official position, then I will discuss at the end..

This is a public service announcement from Burning Man’s Intellectual Property Team.
Fundraising season is now in full swing, and questions from many of you have been making their way to us on the use of Burning Man’s intellectual property for fundraising purposes.
We hear you!
We therefore thought it might be helpful to share Burning Man’s approach to intellectual property (aka “IP”) with you, and how our collective IP can be used in fundraising, in case anyone still has any questions.
There are Three Topics we will address in this email:
  1. Gifting of items containing Burning Man Logos or images
  2. Use of the words “Burning Man” or “Black Rock City”
  3. Personal Use of Photographs taken at the Burning Man Event
1. Gifting of the Trademark 
Burning Man has federally registered symbols depicting The Man and words like  “Burning Man,” “Black Rock City,” “Decompression,” “Burnal Equinox,” and “Flambe Lounge” as trademarks of Burning Man.  We do this so that we can protect these symbols or words and make sure that third parties cannot use these items for commercial or other unwelcome purposes, or otherwise associate themselves with us, causing confusion as to Burning Man’s involvement. This also helps us preserve the Decommodification and Gifting Principles that are an important part of our culture.  While Burning Man protects its trademarks from unauthorized use by third parties, Burning Man always encourages the community to incorporate and use the trademarks in their art and projects on the Playa.
 To This End and in keeping with the Gifting principle, Burning Man permits  the use of Burning Man’s trademarks (Man logos and images) on items to be GIFTED both on and off the Playa.  
Totally OK: 
Items with the Man trademark can be gifted at fundraising events as a thank you, note of appreciation or recognition, or as a reward in return for some achievement, contribution, or lampoon.
(Example: keychain with trademark for guests of your fundraising event or lighters with the trademark for your theme camp crew)
Projects with Kickstarter Campaigns (or similar fundraising tools) have permission from Burning Man to  gift items at various price tiers that contain Burning Man’s trademarks or photography.(Example: Donate $15 to our Kickstarter and get this “gift” mug with the Man symbol- OK) 
Not OK However:
You cannot sell any items with Burning Man’s trademarks. This includes vending online in peer-to-peer resale spaces as eBay or Etsy. (Examples: selling a Burning Man logo t-shirt for your theme camp on eBay or selling earrings with the man symbol on Etsy- Not OK!)
2. Use of the words “Burning Man” or “Black Rock City”
Now, a word about words.  You may use the term “Burning Man” or “Black Rock City” as part of descriptive text, but do not use these words as the central adjective (or only adjective).   Burning Man does not want people confused about who is sponsoring or producing the event.  See the examples below.
Totally OK:
“A Fundraiser for Camp Forgotten Monsters at Burning Man.” Or
“A Fundraiser for the John Frum Institute Art Project at Burning Man,”
Not OK:
“Burning Man Fundraiser for Camp Forgotten Monsters.” or
“Burning Man Fundraiser for the John Frum Institute Art Project.”
Nuanced, but different. Two Fundraisers doing art events.
  1. Personal use of Photographs. 
Anyone who comes to the Burning Man event is allowed to take photographs for personal use. This means it is absolutely ok to share these images with friends, post these images on social networks, print personal copies and share your media in informal presentations. However, as soon as the use of media taken at the Burning Man event expands to non-personal use, you need advance permission from Burning Man. See examples below.
Totally OK:
Posting images from the Burning Man event on Facebook to your personal account;
Gifting your friend a lovely photo from the event.
Not OK However:
Posting images from the Burning Man event to your Theme Camp Fundraiser Page or website;
Selling images captured at Burning Man in any manner.
If you want to sell or post photos professionally, you must work with press@burningman.com for permission to shoot, record and distribute images you take at the event.
Given the kinds of questions that have been raised, and the uses we allow for fundraisers, hopefully we have answered any questions you may have regarding Burning Man’s approach to intellectual property.
But if you do have any more questions, please feel free to shoot us an email at:
Thanks again, VERY much, for all the wonderfully mind-blowing stuff that you are doing!  We wish you a very successful fundraising season ahead!

What’s new? Well, you have to look at the use of the language. Someone there – and maybe it’s more than one person involved in this – is trying to claim ownership of more than they really have. A cheek, when their ownership in the first place has been disputed since the beginning. There’s a long history of dispute between the owners, the founders, and the Burners over all this stuff. I never signed a contract with Burning Man, did you? Maybe you did. They try to have implicit contracts in the legalese on the tickets, in your application on the web site, any chance they can – to make it seem like you’ve entered into a contract with them. This is similar to Apple’s 48 page license agreement – did you read it? Did you sign a contract? Or did you just click “Agree”? This is a VERY grey area of the law that has yet to be effectively tested for enforceability in the United States.

What do I mean by use of language? I only did one year of Law at college, my grades were pretty good but it was not my thing. However, in my career I’ve had to deal with lots of lawyers abouts lots and lots of different things. Particularly pertaining to software and intellectual property. I’ve asked Burners.Me’s resident Samoan Attorney General Counsel Toburn to chime in but he’s no doubt out at some fabulous musical event tonight.

So for now you’ll have to follow my lead, if I’m wrong or it’s arguable, please comment. Let’s look at the first blatant example:

Burning Man has federally registered symbols depicting The Man and words like “Burning Man,” “Black Rock City,” “Decompression,” “Burnal Equinox,” and “Flambe Lounge” as trademarks of Burning Man. We do this so that we can protect these symbols or words and make sure that third parties cannot use these items for commercial or other unwelcome purposes, or otherwise associate themselves with us, causing confusion as to Burning Man’s involvement. This also helps us preserve the Decommodification and Gifting Principles that are an important part of our culture. While Burning Man protects its trademarks from unauthorized use by third parties, Burning Man always encourages the community to incorporate and use the trademarks in their art and projects on the Playa

Weasel words. “Federally registered symbols” – the first red flag. What does that mean? Why don’t they just say trademarks? Perhaps it’s because they own copyrights, and design marks, and even some trademarks – but they do not AT ALL have control over the common English words “Burning Man” in the way this paragraph implies.

First of all, it’s common use words. They can trademark “Facebook” but they can’t trademark “Face” and “Book”. Sony owns “Playstation” but not “Play” or “Station”. If you make a logo with the words “Face” and “Book” in it, that is blue and white like the Facebook logo, you might encounter issues of trade dress – if not misleading imitation. But you can say “use my face book” or “face my use book” or “face book my use” as long as you want (although the last one is somewhat arguable, since “to facebook” has become a verb associated with the software company’s brand).

Next, there are different categories of trademark. So Apple Computer, Inc., owns the trademark on “Apple” in the computer space, but not in the food space. And not in the music space either – the Beatles’ label Apple Records famously got there first. We’ve covered this before: in the United States, Burning Man owns the trademark “Burning Man” for community festivals.

The BURNING MAN trademark is filed in the category of Education and Entertainment Services . The description provided to the USPTO for BURNING MAN is ORGANIZING COMMUNITY FESTIVALS FEATURING A VARIETY OF ACTIVITIES, NAMELY, LIVE MUSIC, ART DISPLAYS, AND PARTICIPATORY GAMES; CONDUCTING ENTERTAINMENT EXHIBITIONS IN THE NATURE OF ART FESTIVALS; AND ENTERTAINMENT IN THE NATURE OF ART FESTIVALS.

alex grey burning manSo you can’t have an art event with live music called Burning Man. And you might not be able to have a live music event with art, either. An electronic music festival? With VJs lighting the stage, but no art displays or participatory games? Seems to me that would be completely fine. Bring a few art cars, get Alex Grey there live painting, and you might get in trouble if you’re calling it Burning Man. Call them “light cars” or “flame cars” and you might be sweet.  There’s no reason why you couldn’t have a clothing label – although they’ve sued against this in the past successfully. It’s the same thing for Decompression – you can’t have a musical event called that without their permission as mark owners, but you can sell diving equipment.

This is not legal advice, you want to do something like that go and get a professional opinion. But this is my armchair opinion. As long as you make it clear that you are NOT affiliated with the owners of the Burning Man trademark for the community festival category, which might confuse the consumer, you’re completely fine. And if your use of the trademark is not in the category of trademark they own (Community Festivals featuring Art, Live Muisc and Games), you’re fine (except if someone else owns a mark in that category). That’s what the law says, as far as I can tell.

You wouldn’t get that from reading the trademark ownership the way BMOrg describes it, would you?

I understand their request that “you can call this Tiki Island Burning Man fund raiser, but you can’t call it Burning Man Tiki Island fund raiser” is not unreasonable. That is: if they were the owner of the trademark “Burning Man” for fundraisers. But they’re not – they’re just using clever legalese to make it seem like they are.

Thirdly, and most relevant to the concept of getting there first, there’s the question of prior art.

Most significantly, a musical festival called “Burning Man” was held in the exact same space, with many of the same people, before Black Rock City, LLC was formed, and the words were in common use to describe a certain style of music festival by the time this trademark was filed in 2003. There was an original “service mark” filed on September 12, 1995, and there were some legal stoushes over its ownership before the refiling of the new trademark in 2003. The original event held on Baker Beach with a flaming effigy has its roots in the Cacophony Society, who first brought this motley crue out to Black Rock City in 1990; the first official use of the term “Burning Man” in relation to this festival is murky, but the other day when I was doing the historical research I called it as 1996. Anyway, years before the formation of Black Rock City LLC, and tens of thousands of people already using those generic words to describe a particpatory music festival. According to Wikipedia, Burning Man started in 1986, but 1996 was the year everybody gave it a name:

1996 was the first year a formal partnership was created to own the name “Burning Man” and was also the last year that the event was held in the middle of the Black Rock Desert with no fence around it.

Going back even further, pioneers in the American desert have been throwing events based around a “Burning Man” for a hundred years:

Zozobra (“Old Man Gloom”) is the name of a giant marionette effigy which is built and burned every autumn during Fiestas de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, usually during the second week of September. As his name suggests, he embodies gloom; by burning him, people destroy the worries and troubles of the previous year in the flames.[1] Anyone with gloom that they need to get rid of can come by the offices of the Santa Fe Reporter in the weeks leading up to the burn to drop off slips of paper with personal gloom written on them. Many people put legal papers in the gloom box as well. At the festival the papers from the gloom box are placed at Zozobra’s feet to be burned alongside him.

Fiestas de Santa Fe has been held since 1712 to celebrate the Spanish retaking of the city in 1692 by Don Diego de Vargas from the Pueblo tribes who had occupied the city since the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The burning of Zozobra dates from 1924. William Howard Shuster, Jr. came up with the idea of creating the effigy, also called Old Man Gloom, and ritual burning. Zozobra means “anxiety” in Spanish. Shuster’s idea was probably influenced by Mexican cartonería (papier-mâché sculpture), especially the effigies exploded during the burning of Judas that takes place on Holy Saturday or New Year’s Eve, as a way of ridding oneself or one’s community of evil.

Today in Santa Fe more than 50,000 people go to watch Zozobra, who stands fifty feet tall. His burning marks the start of three days of celebration that includes traditional mass at St. Francis Cathedral; a reenactment of the Entrada, when Don Diego de Vargas returned to the city; a Children’s Pet Parade; and the Historical/Hysterical Parade. The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe builds Zozobra and burns the effigy at Fort Marcy Park. The Zozobra that was burned on September 7, 2007, was certified by Guinness World Records as the largest marionette in the world,[1] measuring 15.21 m (49.11 feet) in height.[2

‘an ere’s one for da ravahs…innit guv’na…

May 24 2013

My Kid Shirtcocked Your Honor Student

by Whatsblem the Pro

BRC: The happiest place on Earth?

BRC: The happiest place on Earth?

We’ve written about children at Burning Man before, and asked our readers to vote in a poll at the end of that article. The debate and discussion continues, and the poll numbers are running heavily in favor of people who think Burning Man is “a wonderful environment” for children, but there may yet be more to think and talk about on the subject.

Regular contributor Elias Has Wanderlust provoked a lively discussion in the Burning Man group on Facebook recently, by flatly asserting that Burning Man should be for adults only. Thus spake Elias:

“Burning Man should clearly be an 18+ event — the city is not safe for children.”

Elias’ declamatory salvo brought forth a lot of frank anecdotes about kids on the playa, and some really good points on both sides of the debate. Interspersed with a modest dose of snark and some fairly irrelevant emotional appeals like “there is nothing more beautiful than a playa covered burner baby,” people actually started saying some interesting, illuminating things about bringing children to the playa.

It really is a thorny problem that people butt heads over readily. That should tell us that there are some contradictions in play, depending on the angle from which we approach the question of children at Burning Man; doesn’t radical inclusion make room for children? What about the inhibitory effect that children can have on adults at play? Isn’t Burning Man dangerous, particularly for children. . . but don’t we want our children to be raised in our culture, even if it is dangerous?

Some pros and cons to bringing children to the playa:

The real problem is that only two very partisan solutions have been proposed, and they’re both completely unacceptable to large swathes of burners. If we ban children, we ban a huge number of burner parents by association, and deny them the opportunity to transmit burner culture to their children early in the most meaningful way they know of. If we continue to allow children, they will continue to inhibit us when they show their faces outside of the Kidsville age-ghetto, and let’s face it: it’s only a matter of time before something ugly happens and someone’s child disappears and/or falls victim to one of the many, many hazards.

Your bundle of joy can't drink to forget his bundle of joy

Your bundle of joy can’t drink to forget his bundle of joy

People who think the answer is simple and obvious are merely displaying their bias and perpetuating the conflict. It’s disingenuous to say, for instance, that Black Rock City is a city like any other, and needs to have children in it. Burning Man’s municipal analogy is often usefully apt and sometimes beautiful, but it breaks down completely and easily in a dozen different ways when you start testing it. It’s a bit blinkered to say that Burning Man is just a big adult party, too; it’s also an arts festival, and a DIY theme park, and a great deal of it is very kid-friendly. . . or would be, anyway, if there weren’t so many heavily-intoxicated people around, and if it wasn’t all set in a context of overt sexuality that often goes way, way beyond mere nudity and into some territory that might actually disturb the minds of the innocent to witness.

We need an innovative solution that includes everyone, without putting limitations on anyone.

Maybe there should be separate events, geared for younger age groups? Burning Teen, Burning Tot? If we want to spread the culture, then spawning a few new events might be killing several birds with one stone.

We’d like to hear your ideas. How can we safely include the underage set and their parents in Burning Man, without muting the bacchanal for the adults?

Are ageist ghettos really the best we can do?
Are ageist ghettos really the best we can do?

What we don’t want to hear: more anecdotes or opinions about how it’s fine for kids to be out there, or about how it’s unacceptable for kids to come to Burning Man. We’ve already heard those positions, again and again, and they’re both too simplistic to lead to anything but disagreement and a standoff. We’re asking you to think outside the box and find a solution that everyone can live with.

Keep in mind that not all parents behave responsibly, but some do. . . so please don’t bother sharing anecdotes about the children of attentive, sensible parents having a great time on the playa, or anecdotes about dull-witted earth mamas walking around in dust storms cradling tiny infants. Both of these things happen, and much more, and that’s why we need a better solution than just banning or allowing children.

Your thoughts?

Mar 4 2013

Pura Vida! Envision Nails It Again

some great visuals at the Luna stage

some great visuals at the Luna stage

I’m down in Costa Rica for the Envision festival again. What a great festival! A combination of local, US and Canadian musicians and speakers, in a tropical beach paradise setting that is about as far environmentally from Burning Man as you can get…without going to Antarctica, anyway.

Envision is getting bigger every year, with an estimated crowd this time of 5000. Many camp at the 5-day festival, others stay in the very affordable villas or hostels nearby.

At the ticket checkpoint, you can get a coconut

At the ticket checkpoint, you can get a coconut

In many ways, Envision reminds me of the first Burning Man I went to. In 1998, there were 15,000 people at Burning Man, but it felt much smaller. Everyone was approachable, every camp was open, we were all in it together: this crazy bunch travelling all the way to the desert for a festival. It created a common bond of adventure amongst the participants, something that is not quite the same now that Burning Man is a city of more than 60,000 people, with Art Cars that require wristbands to ride on and theme camps that are closed off to all but the insiders ($7500 per “head” to stay in a swingers camp, anyone?)

Ed Zaydelman hosting a workshop in the Tea Lounge

Ed Zaydelman hosting a workshop in the Tea Lounge

This year I managed to take in quite a few of the workshops, mostly because friends were presenting. And they were excellent. Ashley de Regil helped us realize the importance of our dreams, Klaudia Oliver (organizer of TedX Black Rock City) helped us realize the importance of “free style magic”, calling for spiritual assistance any time we need it through simple, personal rituals; and Ed Zaydelman helped us realize the importance of being in the present moment, with conscious awareness of the choices we’re making and their consequences.

Envision was not without its problems. Heavy rain and lightning storms shut the festival down on Friday night, and turned it into a mud bath for the next day. Luckily it’s Costa Rica, and things dry out quickly. Unfortunately for many of the campers, I heard the rental tents were not particularly waterproof.

An outdoor urinal. Strangely unpopular in the day time

An outdoor urinal. Strangely unpopular in the day time

Another problem was more Burning Man-like – on the last day there was no toilet paper, anywhere in Envision, except for the emergency tent where someone was stroking the remaining roll like it was the evil mastermind’s cat in a James Bond movie. Fortunately I was able to use my Burner skills of making do with the tools at hand…I found some fliers promoting a meditation retreat near the entrance. Yes, people can sell things at Envision, and people can advertise things, and we all had a great time and lived to tell the tale.

The vibe amongst the people at this festival was amazing. As one of the DJs said “this is a transformational festival. I feel myself transforming right now, in front of you all”. What makes for a good vibe? No dicks, for a start. What about good looking people? Well, for those of us who care about such things, the girls were amazing. And there seemed to be more of them than guys – always a good thing.

Bear Kittay at work in a Community Dialog

Bear Kittay at work in a Community Dialog

Burners were well represented – it seemed like the majority of people I spoke to, or who responded to “show of hands” in workshops, had been to Burning Man. I met Chris Breedlove, new president of Burners Without Borders (and cousin of the record-breaking rocket car playa jockey). I also got to see Burning Man’s Social Alchemist Bear Kittay doing his thing – which, I have to say, he seems pretty good at. He describes his mission as “seeing what we can do to promote the values of Burning Man out into the broader global culture, and build links between other communities of Burners“. He goes to festivals like Envision and Kiwi Burn, listens more than speaks, and asks “what can we do to help you”. Then he goes back to the Burning Man founders and reports his findings. The jury’s still out on whether this can even be done, whether it can be done in the new non-profit organization that’s being created (seemingly with fresh meat a new team) or whether Burner culture has now become its own beast. We’re all for promoting the values of Burning Man…just less so the values and modus operandi of BMOrg. I didn’t hear anyone getting told off at Envision because of “rules” or “principles”, even though the principles were obvious to all participants. “Respect the environment, but you paid $250 a ticket so we’ll clean up the trash”…rather than “Leave No Trace” (which incidentally, is only ranking 5th in our poll about the most important Principles. Most surprisingly of all, given how rabidly anti-commercial some voices in the Burner community are, is that the LEAST popular principle is Gifting).

Feb 18 2013

Nevada Local Governments Make Pitch To Control Burning Man

Last year Burning Man filed suit against Pershing County, NV, for trying to get a cut of the $24 million+ annual revenues the party brings in. Burning Man argued that their county-based ordnance was unconstitutional. Pershing County hit back, objecting to the nudity at the festival among other things.

Now it seems Burning Man’s legal battles in Nevada are going to continue. The Reno-Gazette Journal has just published an article entitled “Who Regulates Burning Man“?

The newest political push comes from the associations that represent Nevada cities and counties. They’re asking local governments around the state to support potential legislation that upholds “the right of the local governments to ensure activities that occur on these lands is compliant with local land use, zoning, special event and public health and safety codes…”

government solutionThe move is being pushed by the Nevada League of Cities and Municipalities and the Nevada Association of Counties, of which the city of Reno is a part.

The Mayor of Reno is siding with the Burners, pointing out that the event brings more than $15 million annually to the struggling city’s economy. (Surely it is far, far more than that; $15 million is $246 per Burner on average. Perhaps the money going to Wal-Mart, airlines, and rental companies doesn’t get counted as being local)

On Wednesday, Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said the city should not support any policies that hurt Burning Man, which is a week-long arts and free expression festival. Burners on their way to the event often stop in the Reno-Sparks area to buy supplies, leaving behind an estimated $15 million in the local economy.

“They spend a ton of money when they come through here,” Cashell said. “If this is going to affect that we need to oppose it.”

Both the Mayor and Black Rock City, LLC (a privately owned Nevada corporation) argue that the jurisdiction over Burning Man is Federal, since the event takes place on Bureau of Land Management land. One Nevada assemblyman is considering legislation to hit back at the counties, and make it specifically impossible for them to regulate events like Burning Man:

Assemblyman David Bobzien, D-Reno, has a placeholder for a potential bill that, “Prohibits local governments from enacting ordinances restricting events and activities on federal lands.”

…although so far this is all talk, the bill has not actually been introduced.

The Pershing County trial is tentatively set for a post-Cargo Cult September 24.

Feb 13 2013

Got My Tickets…Did You?

umbrella menThe gates are open for the 40,000 Individual Sale tickets – as long as you pre-registered before noon last Sunday. I got in the queue at 12:00:12 – and it took about 8 minutes for my turn to come up. When I submitted the code for the second time, I got a “Bad Gateway” error. I had to refresh the browser and agree to re-submit my form data, then it worked. A relatively painless process, certainly much smoother than last year.

As part of buying the tickets, you have to agree to thousands of words of legalese. What are you actually agreeing to? Some highlights:

- you must spend 2 hours after the event picking up trash

- even if you’re going for a day, you must bring enough food, water, shelter and provisions for an entire week

- Burning Man has all rights to any images you take, or any images taken of you, at the event. You may only use such images for personal use. You can have a show at an art gallery of all your photos; but you can’t charge admission for it or sell the images. However, Burning Man can sell the images or use them for promotion as much as they want

- if anything goes wrong, including serious injury or death, you can’t sue Burning Man, and you can’t sue makers of art cars, art projects, and theme camps

- although you can’t sue them, Burning Man can still sue you

- you can use the Burning Man logo on items that you intend to give away; but you can’t trade those items for anything

- you promise not to be offended by nudity, and if you are, you may leave the vicinity or the event

- you are agreeing to abide by the Ten Principles. So, if you’re not radically self-reliant, in theory they can kick you out (or sue you); if you’re thinking about yesterday or tomorrow, you’re violating the Principle of Immediacy – and therefore the terms of this agreement

- Burning Man can cancel your tickets at any time, for any reason. 

- you are not allowed to sell your tickets at a higher price than face value

- if anything goes wrong with processing your credit card, you’re SOL, you’re not able to use another one

 For those who are interested, here’s the full text. It’s questionable how legally binding a contract of this type is.