Re: xpm images and packaging policy

[Linus Walleij]

tor 2006-01-05 klockan 22:16 +0100 skrev Pavel Machek:

> How are trademarks/copyrights/legal pattern relevant here?

I said I didn't want to start a legal discussion here, just
route around the problem. But anyway...

> Last time I checked, it was legal to take picture of phone I own. I
> may not make my own _phone_ to look like that, but xgnokii is
> certainly not doing that.

I don't know for sure the rest of the world. In the European
Union, it is not legal to duplicate any art in written or 
photographic form. It goes even for industrial design, such
as mobile phones. There are exceptions for architecture 
(buildings) and public art (like statues) but only given the
main purpose is not to make an image of the building/public art
itself but for example of people standing in front of it.

True, this is something not many industrial designers care about,
nor architects, nor anyone else. Most product manufacturers like to
have their product exposed of course, as long as they don't dislike
the way it is exposed, i.e. it is exposed in favorable light. Would
Nokia like the way their products are exposed in Gnokii? Probably.
But it is actually the law, and if they don't like you, you could
theoretically get sued for it.

Also the images in xgnokii seem to be copied verbatim from the
Nokia website, but I might be wrong. Also no, I don't think Nokia
care a single bit about that either. But legally speaking, we 
need that in writing, not in "belief".

It might also be what we call "fair use", i.e. there is no other
way to do it, so we need to use these images. This is always vague,
it needs to be decided in court. There are some cases which would
always be dismissed: for example if you send a book for review and
try to sue the person making the review for making a scan of the 
front cover and use as illustration for the review, you will surely
loose: you should expect such a thing. When it comes to phone images
and remoteing applications, could you really expect that if you sell
a phone? Probably, but well... you never know.

So Fedora takes the certain above the uncertain (as always) and
try to exclude the images. Yes, copyright paranoia indeed, I agree
but there is strong consensus for it.

I don't like it personally. Speaking myself I would prefer to 
quote one of my personal favourite authors William S. 
Burroughs: "nothing is true, everything is permitted".

Linus Walleij