# Copyright question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 4, 2024, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478 "2024-06-04T13:23:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/21 "2024-06-04T17:33:58Z")
Yeah, reading your description of your image, i think it’s a graphic of a prism, and not actually a knockoff of a particular famous graphic of a prism. There are a lot of prism graphics out there, and it’s too generic an idea to trademark.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/22 "2024-06-04T17:54:43Z")
Actually, it probably is trademarked, but that’s not a concern here, since trademarks are domain-specific. If your garage band released an album, and you used the exact same image you’re using as your icon as the cover art, that probably would be a trademark infringement. But you’re not doing that, so that doesn’t matter.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/23 "2024-06-04T18:19:01Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#):
>
> In a more IMHO-sense, there was a company I worked for that named all their servers after Star Wars characters and places. The icons to go to these different servers were pictures of the characters or place. I was mainly just answering the question factually. Overall, it probably isn’t a big deal.
Wouldn’t they be covered by trademark, not copyright - and since they are not posing as characters in anything, would be okay. It appears you can’t copyright titles - people reuse them all the time.
And just to mention that the OP mentions freehanding the image. How it is made is not important, I’d think. Copyright preceded typewriters, after all.
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### Author:  [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/24 "2024-06-04T19:01:50Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> the OP mentions freehanding the image. How it is made is not important
I think that is pretty important. If he had downloaded an image of the album cover and converted it to a .ico file, then that would definitely be copying, and we’d be discussing if the copying was copyright infringement or fair use. In this case a new work was created from scratch, so it wasn’t literal copying.
Even created from scratch it could still be copyright infringement, but that is going to make it more difficult to prove. Just like not all drawings of a banana are infringing Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol, I don’t see how all drawings of prism can also be infringing.
Of course, the very unsatisfactory answer to questions like this is that nobody knows the answer until it is fully litigated in court.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/25 "2024-06-04T20:30:18Z")
Hmm… remember this case?
> **[Kind of Screwed - Waxy.org](https://waxy.org/2011/06/kind_of_screwed/)**
>
> TL;DR version: Last year, I was threatened with a lawsuit over the pixel art album cover for Kind of Bloop. Despite my firm belief that I was legally in the right, I settled out of court to cut my losses. This ordeal was very nerve-wracking for me...
The only winners were the lawyers.
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### Author:  [@BeepKillBeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeepKillBeep)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2024, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/26 "2024-06-04T21:06:02Z")
Those would be yes. The main thing I was trying to say is while these would be violations, in practice, who is going to be touring our development lab, see the icons, and sue the company? Answer: Nobody. Ever.
So, something can be a violation but not be a significant risk too.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [June 4, 2024, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/27 "2024-06-04T23:38:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Actually, it probably is trademarked, but that’s not a concern here, since trademarks are domain-specific.
Well it could be. Trademarks must be protected or else you lose them. That is why Disney went after a daycare in Florida for illicit use of their trademark - the bad press was worth keeping the value of their ™s. Copyright does not have to be protected in the same way.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/28 "2024-06-05T00:14:32Z")
Yeah, and it’s possible that Pink Floyd never even bothered to register it. That’s why I hedged and said “probably”.
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> That is why Disney went after a daycare in Florida for illicit use of their trademark - the bad press was worth keeping the value of their ™s.
I’ve never seen the details of that case, but it’s quite possible it would have been even worse press to not go after them. Not all daycares are good, and nobody at Disney wants to see stories about some scandal at “that Disney daycare”. And even if the place wasn’t scandalous, that’s not something that Disney has any control over, and you don’t want your name attached to something that you can’t control.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/29 "2024-06-05T00:43:56Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Actually, it probably is trademarked, but that’s not a concern here, since trademarks are domain-specific.
A quick search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark database suggests the prism design has not only been trademarked for music, but also for clothing. No idea what other ancillary uses the band/publisher might be trying to protect.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/30 "2024-06-05T03:28:09Z")
> [@md-2000](#):
>
> I recall talking to a DEC technician who mentioned there was one site that had 7 computers, and named each one after one of the seven dwarfs. It was a medical facility, so he said "I wonder what the psychiatrists thought when they saw the response “Welcome to the magic kingdom, you are logged into Grumpy.”
I believe I worked on those servers.
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/31 "2024-06-05T10:32:34Z")
I set up the first LAN for the National Air and Space Museum. (I am not making this up.)
You’ll never guess what I called the first two servers.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/32 "2024-06-05T11:18:13Z")
Air and Space?
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/33 "2024-06-05T11:23:24Z")
Nope.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/34 "2024-06-05T13:02:45Z")
Wilbur and Orville?
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/35 "2024-06-05T13:07:47Z")
My home router is palantir #
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/36 "2024-06-05T13:26:44Z")
Bingo!
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/37 "2024-06-05T18:07:14Z")
> [@echoreply](#):
>
> I think that is pretty important. If he had downloaded an image of the album cover and converted it to a .ico file, then that would definitely be copying, and we’d be discussing if the copying was copyright infringement or fair use. In this case a new work was created from scratch, so it wasn’t literal copying.
>
> Even created from scratch it could still be copyright infringement, but that is going to make it more difficult to prove. Just like not all drawings of a banana are infringing Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol, I don’t see how all drawings of prism can also be infringing.
Since the OP says they had access to the original work, I wasn’t considering the difficulty of proving it.
There were cases of accusations that a company copied the code to implement the instruction set of another companies computer. The protection against this kind of case was to keep the developers isolated from this code, even if the second company had it. Then they could prove that any direct duplication of code were accidental or because that was the only reasonable implementation.
So, if there could be literal copying, say because the accused had access to the original, then they might be in trouble.
And sure, showing mechanical copying makes it easier for the plaintiff.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/38 "2024-06-05T18:10:58Z")
> [@BeepKillBeep](#):
>
> So, something can be a violation but not be a significant risk too.
I agree. I was just nitpicking. That’s my job.
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### Author:  [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/39 "2024-06-05T19:20:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> I believe I worked on those servers.
IIRC he said it was the Health Sciences Center.
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> The only winners were the lawyers.
I don’t blame them. I had to look closely to see it was pixilated, at the size shown it looked just posterized. If the Obama Hope can be sued for being posterized and recoloured, no surprise if an immediately identifiable photo is rendered in close to true colours for the same sort of industry.
The difference in Canada is tht generally the loser in a lawsuit pays the winner’s bills, thus discouraging frivolous or Hail-Mary lawsuits. If your case sucks, settle.
Still, a prism illustration is sufficiently generic that without any other reference (don’t call the app “The Dark Side”), and unless it copies the proportions exactly (for example the angle of spread of the rainbow) and unless it is in the same tenor (sorry, like it was for music) it’s a reach to call it a copy. It’s just a coincidence.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2024, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/copyright-question/1002478/40 "2024-06-05T19:23:19Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#):
>
> My home router is palantir #
Mine is Chimaera. I hope Disney doesn’t find out.
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