Chris Cannam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >On Friday 05 Mar 2004 2:03 pm, William wrote: >> If you have sight of a copyrighted proprietary screenshot and then >> create your own version, you run the risk of being accused of >> having created a derived work as such. > >Even if that were so,
It is the law in the UK, EU, USA and elsewhere too. Please take my word for it and save yourself about UKP 1000 in fees for a 1st-class IPR barrister. I'm not a lawyer but I've had meetings with lawyers specifically about the issue of derivative works and infringements of my own copyright. The advice I received covers Michael's screenshot proposal in some detail. >looking at screenshots wouldn't make much >difference. It's a pretty safe bet that some of the Rosegarden >developers have even (shock!) used Logic in real life, as well as >practically every other major desktop music application. Yes, but Michael's proposal was different -- namely making a copy screenshot of a proprietary application. That would be perfect evidence for an infringement lawsuit. >But nobody ever gets sued for merely imitating the way a program >behaves. The protagonists in the copyright look-and-feel lawsuits would beg to differ. >Hell, at least 95% of all desktop software basically just >imitates the way other software behaves. Any case that appears to be >about that is always actually about something else, such as >infringement of copyright on actual graphical elements, passing-off >under trade regulations, misuse of a trademark, etc. Every case is decided on its merits. Michael's email to you is a matter of public record. If you create something based on the screenshot he might have sent you, you are asking for trouble. You really don't want to get sued. RG is a hobby, isn't it? Even out-of-court settlements can be very expensive. I really like RG. Given the obvious dedication and talent of the RG developers, I think RG is going to become better than any commercial music application. It'd be a shame if the excellent progress were to be spoiled by a totally unnecessary lawsuit. The RG team can create something far better than the competition. The RG mailing list is full of excellent ideas of our own making. You don't need to look at proprietary screenshots to be able to create RG's graphics yourself. William ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of GenToo technologies. Learn everything from fundamentals to system administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click _______________________________________________ Rosegarden-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - use the link below to unsubscribe https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rosegarden-devel
