Hackspace Magazine

Discussion
7

I’m not entirely sure what you mean, so I’ll do my best to cover all bases:

We initially agreed that we’d not talk about it very publicly and would solicit feedback from spaces before it got any further (which we did) - I believe it was brought up in the Telegram group while the call was still in progress. We were going to query about it publicly in the last two weeks but life/illness delayed it, which I can only apologise for.

As I said this has been launched far earlier than we were told, I expected we had a longer period to give feedback and protest.

I currently have an email thread open with them, however it appears to be someone new who is saying quite different things than we were told in the past and I’m actually quite concerned. If you’ve got suggestions as to what a small but differentiating change could be I’d love to pass it on to them.

8

I can’t think of anything right now but anything with Hack in would be pretty easy for them to switch to - HackSnack or something

I wonder if the best response at this stage is to put out a post to explicitly distinguish Hackspace Foundation and the various non-profit hackspaces from the for-profit enterprise that is HSM. The post could point out that RPi is clearly trying to ride on the success of the hackspaces around the UK/Ireland and call out the underhanded way they’ve approached it.

It could also say something along the lines of curated material being welcome but that we’re also aware of the moves to trademark words like makerspace, and Make’s positioning of itself as the steer of spaces and events in the US and further afield. And (maybe) graciously acknowledge their trademark, while admitting that any further attempts might lose them or others good will?

And maybe a bit for places like Hackaday to share.

Happy to help draft this if people think it’s worthwhile.

9

‘hackspace magazine’ or ‘hackspacemag’ would be fine but it is simply really confusing as ‘hackspace’ alone especially if they try to use it as a brand for more things.

10

Yeah, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say they’re passing off by using “HackSpace” in isolation on their cover. We’d need to formalise what negative impact this has on us in order to take action, but there’s nothing to stop us hinting at this in the post too.

They’ve registered under “Printed matter” (don’t care about this) and “Computer software/downloadable electronic publications/information relating to computers”. The latter definitely crosses over into areas we have significant presence in.

11

For the sake of this thread, I don’t think this is true, but let’s continue discussing that in https://forum.hackspace.org.uk/t/trademarking/210

12

I actually totally missed that they’ve just called it “Hackspace” and not “Hackspace Magazine” as they originally told us. That is really not acceptable.

@ms7821 I think drafting something we can edit would be useful - could you have a go?

2 Likes
13

If the image

HackSpace_cover-768x768.png768×768 352 KB

is to be trusted Jonty it is “HackSpace” magazine.

Spike

14

I’ve shared a very rough initial draft with Jonty. If anyone want to help, please message me privately.

Any suggestions on people to get in touch with, or other points we could make, are welcome!

1 Like
15

I’ve not heard much more about this. Do people want to do anything about the likely passing off, or are we waiting to read the first issue?

Also Thursday (when the first issue goes out) is the date their trademark becomes registered and it becomes a lot harder to oppose.

16

I’ve made a number of enquiries but I haven’t been able to find an IP lawyer who’s willing to work pro bono on this.

My opinion is that Hackspace is clearly a generic term in trademark law, and our limited funds and time would be better spent reinforcing this than filing a trademark application which is likely to be denied or attacked.

17

Make magazine already showed us how bad this can get (first profiteering, then legal threats to community groups based on there trademarks, then racist and sexist abuse online in the name of makers).
We need to pressure them into changing the name or loosing support. if there magazine isn’t welcome in hackspaces across the UK then they might realise there mistake. Did an article about the stolen name get written anywhere? I am not the best writer but willing to do it if no one else has. Needs to be sent out to all spaces so they are aware of the issues before deciding to support it in their physical space.

18

Alternatively, we work with them rather than burning bridges and instead create something awesome, could we use this as an opportunity to bring hackspaces together? Regardless of monetary intention, someone sat down and thought “wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a hackspace magazine?” and it is now a thing.

I’m not seeing anyone actually turn around with this and say “well how about we get together and run our own magazine, which is actually ran as a not for profit and helps sustain those who want to run it?”. It takes time, effort and graft.

Easier to burn paper ey? Some Hackspaces are already on board with this and even ordered copies for their members. Can we have nice things?

19

@stanto To be clear this is not a magazine about hackspaces, they just liked the word. The magazine is basically a Make clone from what I understand.

When we initially spoke to them they said they’d be covering hackspaces and would ensure that the movement was properly represented. When I asked about this again after the launch they seem to no longer be doing this, and I don’t think they’re particularly interested in changing.

20

From reading the edition which is now available I believe it in part, is. Check it out if you haven’t read it yet :slight_smile:

21

Has anyone actually received copies to their hackspace? Is there a delay or has this offer simply not been honoured?

22

Our lot had attempted delivery yesterday. It’s sent by UPS.

23

Received at Leeds hackspace.

24

We’ve got some too now. Just seemed odd that there was such a large gap between the first copies going out, but I guess they may not have known how much interest there would be, etc.

25

Ok now it’s out and people have had a look, what do people think?

It’s obviously not aimed at me personally but I’m not sure what to make of it really. It feels like it’s spread a bit thin, which i can imagine is going to be a problem for a magazine which wants to cover the whole range of interests that are covered by a hackspace.

26

So, in my very humble opinion:

From reading the introduction it honestly looks like something that could help promote the spaces. I am thinking of writing a couple of articles for the local spaces. So I am in agreement with @stanto but this of course is the first entry and it might go the way @jonty mentions.

Ben Everad used be in Linux Format, later Linux Voice and also the Tux Radar podcast. Which I followed for a while. He has written books on helping people to code. And that is what I have heard of him, I am sure he has done more. Sounds like a very decent person.

Our particular Hackspace likes sharing what we do and we keep a blog of sorts and we do publish stories in our local community magazine so publicising ourselves in a physical medium is not way out of our normal modus operandi.

Already, I think it is a better magazine than other similar magazines mentioned by @RandomTom

I don’t agree with the licence but it is the same one that we have for the Hackspace foundation Resources manual. And I understand the reasoning behind it.

I am considering subscribing for one box for two spaces, I have asked for pricing and I am waiting to hear back.

Received two boxes: one in CRE-8.org and one in RichmondMakerLabs. At the moment we have more people taking them away in CRE-8 than in RichmondMakerLabs.

I am also thinking of subscribing to one projects featured in the magazine, I would have known about it if I had not received the magazine.

As always, magazines are great for finding things that I did not know that I wanted to know. Those unknown unknowns is something I would normally miss because I am normally searching for things that I know that a want. Having a physical magazine makes it more probably for me to open it up and have a look leisurely while the electronic version will be forgotten really quickly. If there are any left over for the next issue I can always drop them off at the local GP, library or dentist office. I am sure it will be better than some of the magazines I find there.

So yes, not nice that they decided to ignore @jonty and @russ but if someone was going to do it has not been too bad the way they did it. I think it would be nice to have a Hackspace Foundation article written to be set in the magazine. Some time ago I added a marketing section to the repo but did not get very far.