Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!mrsvr.UUCP!shoreland.uucp!hallett
From: hallett@shoreland.uucp (Jeff Hallett x4-6328)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: disney
Message-ID: <958@mrsvr.UUCP>
Date: 31 Aug 89 17:50:00 GMT
References: <21726@cup.portal.com>
Sender: news@mrsvr.UUCP
Reply-To: hallett@shoreland.UUCP (Jeff Hallett x4-6328)
Organization: GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee,  WI
Lines: 38

In article <21726@cup.portal.com> alex@cup.portal.com (Alex D Seiden) writes:
>way shape or form.  The story about them suing a nursery school
>in Florida is true.  The may even try to stop you from naming your
>machines after the characters.  Very sensitive people.

They can't.  Copyright is only valid within industry.  That means that
the images of the Seven Dwarves are copyrighted, but not the names
unless you try to create another cartoon character with the name
Grumpy or something.  Then, Disney reserves the right to push for
copyright violation.  The only way they could stop someone from naming
their machines after the dwarves would be to trademark the names and
even then proving violation of trademark would be difficult unless you
tried to release a new computer named "Bashful" or something.  Given
the private nature of naming your Sun cluster, they would have a
difficult time doing anything about it.

Copyright is really a difficult thing to litigate.  Almost every case
that is decided sets precedence in some way.  Most copyright cases are
won by the company with the most money - they threaten to sue and
intimidate the smaller company which would have a more difficult time
lasting through a long copyright suit.

Disney is definitely too tight, but, I guess when your livelihood is
derived from cartoon characters, you have to be careful.


Go ahead and name your machines after the Dwarves.  As far as the
pictures go, if you were to buy a composite photo of the Dwarves, cut
them out and pasted them to the console, there is nothing Disney can
do about it since you legitimately purchased the picture and it is
your right to dispose of it as you wish (so long as you don't try to
publish it again).

--
                Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering
                    GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414
                            Milwaukee, WI  53201
          (414) 548-5163 : EMAIL -  hallett@positron.gemed.ge.com