Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!sun-barr!newstop!sun!bari!briang
From: briang@bari.Sun.COM (Brian Gordon)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Graphical Copyright
Message-ID: <124097@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 1 Sep 89 21:30:44 GMT
References: <918@csisles.Bristol.AC.UK> <26076@dhw68k.cts.com>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: briang@sun.UUCP (Brian Gordon)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 39

In article <26076@dhw68k.cts.com> thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod) writes:
>The central 7 machines on our local network here are named after the 7
>dwarves.  To create a label for each of them I drew (in fig) a small
>cartoon of each dwarf based on some pictures I found in some childrens
>books. What is the position regarding copyright on this - can I release
>these pictures as public domain clip-art?  

1) STANDARD DISCLAIMER - I'm not a lawyer, and don't even play one on TV

2) SPECIAL DISCLAIMER - My experience is in the relm of music manuscripts, and
   it is not clear how much carries over.

3) There are two separable issues here, the copyright of the "Disney
   characters" and your rights to the representations you have created.  Your
   drawings are "derived works" -- original work based on someone else's
   original work.  If you were naive, and just "drew the pictures", you have --
   believe it or not -- already violated the Copyright laws, since you made "a
   copy" of something to which Disney owns the "rights to all copies", the
   copyright.  The fact that no money changed hands, you did not make a profit,
   etc., is all irrelevant, since it is not a "copy-for-profit-right", but a
   "copyright".

   If you negotiate with the copyright owner, you may well get permission to do
   certain limited things with their property for a fee.  If the copyright
   owner (or representatives) becomes aware of a violation, they have exactly 
   two choices: prosecute the violation or abandon the copyright.  Most
   copyright owners take reasonable care to "not discover" violations that are
   "trivial".  However, once known, their hands are pretty well tied,
   especially if their "intellectual property" has monetary value to them, as
   it obviously does in Disney's case(s).

   Your best bet would appear to be to not mention it.  You are perfectly free,
   of course, to do completely original drawings of the dwarfs, since the
   Disney claim is to their representations, not the characters themselves
   which have been public domain for a long time.  You may assert your own 
   copyright on those original representations if you wish.

4) USENET DISCLAIMER - my employer doesn't know, and presumably doesn't care,
   about my opinions in these matters.