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List:       kde-policies
Subject:    legal issues around cover art
From:       Scott Wheeler <wheeler () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-11-08 17:15:02
Message-ID: 200411081815.02767.wheeler () kde ! org
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Ok, so another sticky question -- and one that I don't feel comfortable 
deciding on my own:

Displaying cover art in KDE's music players is a popular feature or \
requested  features.  As of yesterday JuK supports this, including an \
internet based  lookup using Google's image search.

However, I was reluctant to commit that and think (and even argued against 
such just last week -- but it was part of a larger patch that I did want \
in).

There are two methods that are presently being used -- JuK is using Google 
image search to fetch images that can then be saved locally, amaroK is \
using  Amazon's web services.  Unfortunately I think that both of these are \
of  dubious legality.  I'd like to hear other opinions on this as well.

*) Google image search -- this works by doing a search and displaying a \
dialog  that lets the user choose one of the images that's found.  However, \
these  images are naturally copyrighted.  I'm not sure if copying them to \
the local  hard drive for personal use can be viewed as fair use.  I'm not \
sure where  the legal line is between Google being able to cache them and \
us being able  to cache them locally.

*) Amazon web services -- this one has a clearly defined terms of use, but \
my  reading of these terms [1] (sections C and D specifically) is such that \
they  cannot be used in a GPL'ed app.  Specifically the requirements for \
linkage to  Amazon, linking to other stores being banned, not allowing \
certain uses of  the data, etc. seem problematic.  Specifically, if you \
took a GPL'ed  application and removed the line of code that caused it to \
link to Amazon it  would no longer be legal to redistribute said \
application.  This would seem  to contradict the terms of the GPL.

I tend to prefer the Google one since it seems to be at least in the gray \
area  to my mind, but I'm not sure if either is legal enough for inclusion \
in KDE.   Thoughts?

Cheers,

-Scott


[1]http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_fe_c_1_13553801_4/102-1312546-3647361?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=3440661&no=13553801&me=A36L942TSJ2AJA


-- 
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer 
shelf life.
--Frank Zappa
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