Summary of the BiNet bi flag copyright controversy
According to most sources I can find, the bi pride flag with 3 stripes in pink, purple, and blue was created in 1998 by Michael Page, who was a volunteer at BiNet USA, a nonprofit bisexual organization formed in 1990. Michael wrote a post about the history of the bi flag in 2001, saying that “This flag is for free public and commercial use. The Bi Pride Flag is the only bisexual symbol not patented, trademarked or service marked.” (link to Michael’s post)
On April 28th, 2020, the twitter account for BiNet (@/binetusa) made a thread claiming that the bi pride flag is copyrighted and belongs solely to BiNet, and asking for anyone selling or using the bi pride flag or colors to either remove it or establish a license agreement with BiNet. (link to BiNet’s thread)
Note that the first person targeted by BiNet to take down their bi flag merch was not a big corporation like Target, but rather Jayne Shea, who is a bi community member and independent creator. (link to Buzzfeed interview with Jayne)
BiNet claimed that they spoke to Michael Page and that he disagreed with the statement that the bi flag was not trademarked. And also threatened court action against Jayne. (link to tweet)
This is contradictory to this tweet from BiNet in 2018 where apparently Michael told Faith that the bi flag belongs to the whole bi community... (link to tweet)
After the huge backlash from the bi community in response to their statement, the BiNet twitter deactivated on April 29th, 2020.
BiNet board member Dr. Lauren Beach made a statement on her personal twitter, saying that the BiNet twitter was run only by the president of the organization, Faith Cheltenham, and that Faith did not actually consult any of the board members before making the statement. (link to Lauren’s twitter thread) Both Lauren and another board member, Shauna Brock, expressed that they disagreed with Faith’s actions. (link to Shauna’s twitter statement)
Lauren also asked Faith to stop doxxing people, because Faith had been posting the full names and sometimes email addresses of people disagreeing with her on her personal twitter (@/thefayth).
Lauren said that the BiNet board would be meeting later to discuss this, and would be releasing a statement. On May 1, 2020, Faith updated BiNet’s blog with their official statement, which reaffirms the stance from the original twitter thread, as well as saying that Michael Page came up with the idea for the flag but that the co-creators of the flag are Wendy Curry and GG Raven Wilbur. BiNet’s twitter account has also been reactivated. After posting the link to BiNet’s statement, Lauren said that she has resigned from the BiNet board. (link to BiNet’s blog post)
Wendy Curry herself commented on board member Ron Suresha’s tweet about the statement, saying that it is incorrect (link to tweet):
Wendy also made a statement on her personal facebook page, saying that the bi flag was never owned by BiNet, it was created and copywritten by Michael Page, who was not even on BiNet’s board when he thought of it. The copyright was handed to BiCafe when Michael retired. I’m having trouble finding out exactly what BiCafe was and what that means about who owns the copyright now, but BiNet’s statement seems to imply that BiCafe was a part of BiNet. (link to Wendy’s facebook post)
On the Wikimedia Commons page for the bisexual pride flag, it says “This image of simple geometry is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain, because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship.” (source)
Wendy’s facebook statement did say that the copyright exists, but would have certain requirements for enforcing it, so any requests to remove a bi flag without these requirements can be ignored:
So... the future of the bi pride flag is a little uncertain, since BiNet is holding firm to its stance and is apparently willing to pursue legal action (although no actual legal action has apparently been taken yet, only threatened).
If they succeed, it will only hurt independent lgbt creators that make bi pride merch to support themselves and their community, and will not have much of an effect on big corporations profiting off the bi community. But it also seems like a pretty strong defense could be made against BiNet if they actually do try to take legal action.
