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List:       kde-artists
Subject:    Re: K-ARTIST:plugin icons in Kopete -- trademark/copyright issue?
From:       ante <vitanova () softhome ! net>
Date:       2003-02-16 14:43:22
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On Sunday 16 February 2003 05:11, Scott Wheeler wrote:

>
> (1) policy - We currently do at least some basic auditing for code
> ownership and licenses in KDE -- we should probably do the same for artwork
> and such. It's probably a good idea to say before every (major) release to
> have someone spend a couple of hours to glance at icons and art that are in
> KDE and make sure that they're not obviously owned by someone else.

All artwork in CVS has to be drawn by the artist him/her-self. So, the artwork 
is copyrighted by the contributing artist. No problem here. 
   Artwork of course is often inspired by other artwork. Here rules are less 
clear. In Dutch law for instance, you have to make 7 changes in the design. 
(Hence the clothes that look the same but have different stitches, etc). As 
long as the artwork is drawn by the contributing artist, there are no direct 
copyright problems, only the 'is it too similar' kind. But 7 changes are 
easily made. KDE artwork has to be original, so, these problems should not 
exist too. 
   There may be an other kind of problem when there is a trademark (image) 
involved. Here I understand the icon refers to programs with trademarked 
symbols, by using that symbol. I guess that when the icon is hand made, and 
the referring to the symbol is original enough, the holder of the trademark 
will not act. It should be clear that you are referring to a symbol, not 
using it as a flag on your product, as if the product comes from the 
trademark holder. 
  
On the kde-artists list Antialias often showed an uncanny ability to spot 
copyright problems. Later he explained he used search engines for that. 

Cordialemente,

Ante



>
> (2) artists - This means replacing a few of the icons in Kopete assuming
> that it is decided that these should go.  Any volunteers?
>
> (3) Kopete - Probably worthwhile to note in the future, and well, you
> should be in the loop.  :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> -Scott

-- 



******

http://home.uwnet.nl/~vita


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