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Subject:Re: Help File Colors and Icons From:"Gallagher, Susan" <sgallagher -at- STARBASECORP -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 26 Oct 1995 18:08:26 -0700
More graphics questions from Karen...
Now the other matter ... perhaps my icon question was too vague. I am
no artist and need "icons" (maybe I should just call them "pictures"?)
to place in graphics, such as the one described above.
For example, if I had a topic "Cars, and Trucks, and Things That Go"
and I happened to see a picture in a Word Help file of a car, truck,
and plane, can I print screen and alter the image in Paintbrush? If
so, how much manipulation should I do? What about images from clipart
galleries? What are the legal issues here? Does anyone know? (No one
here does. The program's GUI guy says "they never have to deal with
that"...although some of their tool bar icons appear very similar to
those used in other programs. Hmmm... )
I believe the copyright laws say that at least 30% of a graphic must change
to avoid an infringement lawsuit. The judge (or jury) gets to say whether
you've met or exceeded the 30% requirement. It's not something I care to
chance on a regular basis.
Clipart galleries usually come with a set of 'instructions' for re-use. Most
of them go like this...
1. You can re-use the images freely if you're not doing it for resale. That
makes it OK for newsletters, in-house applications, and stuff, but not for
commercial software.
2. You can re-use the images in products for resale as long as you
acknowledge the copyright of the creating company -- for example, on the
copyright page you'll need to put "portions copyright by ClipORama".
Toolbar icons are often distributed with development packages, so they are a
different story -- they're re-used with permission.
If you find a clipart package you like, call and find out what the
distribution limitations are before you buy it. I'm sure they'll be happy to
tell you how they work things.
****************************************************
Sue Gallagher
StarBase Corp, Irvine CA
sgallagher -at- starbasecorp -dot- com
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