Trek's Wiki Logo

[Nate the Great]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_is_futile

This is undoubtedly going to create lots of uproar and controversy, which is why I'm doing it.

The logo for a Star Trek related page on Wikipedia is the NX-01! What's up with that? It should be a Cochrane delta, right?

[Zeke]

I'm guessing it used to be just that. According to the history, the Trek stub template has gone through a bunch of images -- they keep getting deleted for copyright reasons. The current one is used with the artist's permission, but I doubt it could stand up to a challenge either, since it's clearly derivative work.

I'm no expert, but there should be no reason a sufficiently generic Trek logo wouldn't be covered under fair use. You might try talking to DoctorWho42 about it. He's a friend of the site with much more Wiki experience than I have.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, but why would it have to be "sufficiently generic?" There are screencaps all over Wikipedia, presumably put there using the "fair use" legislation. I don't see how one little icon is going to create so much trouble. Besides, just stick a little TM after it. How can anyone possibly make money off it or have any reason to claim such a thing as their own personal property?

And on a lighter note, here's an explanation of why I consider "Cochrane delta" to be a more proper term than "Starfleet insignia" or the like. It comes from the book Federation (now out as part of the 40th anniversary classic reprint collection, by the way). Zephram Cochrane has to explain why a warp bomb (using a warp engine to implode an area of space, think an Omega Molecule for normal space instead of subspace) is impossible.

Start with the Command star. You know, the one inside Kirk's emblem, with the top point extending far out. That's the speed of light. Put an arc on the left and right, meeting above the star. That's the energy curve to going faster than light using conventional Newton/Einsteininan physics. Sure, according to some (fictional) law or other, once you pass the speed of light, the energy requirements drop off dramatically, but to pass the star that is the speed of light requires an infinite amount of energy. The offset curve below the star is the energy curve using a warp field. By manipulating space to create such a warp field, offset from normal space-time, you can pass the speed of light using less than an infinite amount of energy. However, since the warp field exists outside of normal space-time, any explosion created using it will only exist inside subspace. You might as well use a normal antimatter bomb, they're more effective. These curves combine to form what Riker calls a Cochrane delta, the symbol that was used for the Enterprise NCC-1701 back in the days of different emblems for each ships because the Big E was so important.