Can someone explain to me how this is supposed to work?
If a flag design is PD, and I make a faithful representation of it (intended to be a duplicate), do I have any copyright over it or not?
Ditto COAs.
Some examples:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ked.gif http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Coa_cote_d_ivory.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lombardia-Bandiera.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Miranda_flag.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Martina_Franca-Stemma.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Petrzalka_erb.gif http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ph_seal_guimaras.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Pommernwappen.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Provincia_Huesca.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Puglia-Bandiera.png http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Russia_coa.svg (some discussion) plus a whole bunch linked to http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:SlovakCityCOA
Some of these images have been marked as copyvios because they're from Flags of the World (FOTW) website. Is FOTW even right to claim copyright?
See, this ( http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Russian_Empire_1914-17_Flag.png ) is tagged as copyvio because it's from FOTW. Yet it's also listed as being superseded by http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Russian_Empire_1914_17.svg which is licensed CC-BY-SA!!! What gives??
I would have thought that either a flag design is PD or it's not. (generally decided by the laws of the country.) If it's PD, it doesn't matter how much time you spend on your SVG, you can't license it any other way than PD. (And PD-self is *wrong* in such cases.) If it's not, then it's gonna be copyrighted as we can't host it anyway.
Feedback please, and if you want to delete/retag any of the above images that'd be great.
Brianna commons:User:pfctdayelise
Brianna Laugher wrote:
Can someone explain to me how this is supposed to work?
If a flag design is PD, and I make a faithful representation of it (intended to be a duplicate), do I have any copyright over it or not?
Ditto COAs.
<snip>
Some of these images have been marked as copyvios because they're from Flags of the World (FOTW) website. Is FOTW even right to claim copyright?
Um. I saw a bunch of these on bad_old_ones for [[Category:Against policy]]...
On 01/07/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) alphasigmax@gmail.com wrote:
Um. I saw a bunch of these on bad_old_ones for [[Category:Against policy]]...
Yes, they're all from there. Which is rather why I'd like to know...
Brianna
On 6/30/06, Brianna Laugher brianna.laugher@gmail.com wrote:
Can someone explain to me how this is supposed to work?
If a flag design is PD, and I make a faithful representation of it (intended to be a duplicate), do I have any copyright over it or not?
Depends where you are in the world. In the United States, there is a minimum creativity bar to clear, which accurate copying generally does not. Thus in the US exact copying does not create new copyright.
In some other places in the world, new copyright is created every time a new copy of the work is created - this "mechanical copyright" means that a copy of a public-domain work is not necessarily public domain. This is the case in the UK among others, I believe.
-Matt
On 6/30/06, Matt Brown wrote:
Depends where you are in the world. In the United States, there is a minimum creativity bar to clear, which accurate copying generally does not. Thus in the US exact copying does not create new copyright.
In some other places in the world, new copyright is created every time a new copy of the work is created - this "mechanical copyright" means that a copy of a public-domain work is not necessarily public domain. This is the case in the UK among others, I believe.
How should we apply this? I believe that as the flag itself is a PD object, that gives us the license to yield to what Matt states is US law.
My own interpretetion: If it appears that a graphics program adept (they're familiar with the graphics program, be it Photoshop or Inkscape or whatever, that they're using) put a significant amount of creativity (a billable amount of time, more than 2-4 hours dependant on level of expertise) into the design, they may be able to claim copyright on it. Either delete it or modify it significantly (put another hour into it), or upload a decent copy of your own.
Frankly, I think it's just silly to claim copyright on a flag. I also think it's silly to upload a flag you got from a site that claims copyright.
Cary Bass
I'd say in general with flags, we should be able to create our own illustration from scratch and thus avoid the whole issue.
-Matt