Re: [Fwd: copyright/trademark enquiry]

["Luis Villa" <luis tieguy org>]

Hi, Carl-

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: "Carl F Falk" <cffalk psych ubc ca>
> To: licensing gnome org
> Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:08:54 -0700 (PDT)
> Subject: copyright/trademark enquiry
> Dear Sir or Madam:
>
> Recently for part of my MA thesis research in social psychology at the
> University of British Columbia, I used two screen shots of two GNOME games
> (Atomix and Klotski) as stimuli for a study. I am currently interested in
> publishing the work in a scholarly journal (and a version must be
> submitted to my school's library soon). I am wondering if you know if
> screen shots for these games are copyrighted by the GNOME foundation, who
> owns the copyright, and if it would be possible for these screen shots to
> be published in a scholarly journal or as part of my MA thesis. I am
> considering presenting the two screen shots as "figures" for each of the
> papers. Alternatively, I may wish to just make a note that the two games
> are "freely available as part of the GNOME desktop platform at
> www.gnome.org" and omit publishing the actual screen shots. If at all
> possible, please let me know what is needed in order to publish such
> images, or at least how you would like me to tell readers that these games
> are available for GNOME.

Bunch of different things intertwined here:

Can you get copyright permissions to use the screenshots?

Without knowing what screenshots you are using, it is impossible to
know who owns the copyright in the screenshot, what license those
copyrights are available under, etc. As a result, neither I nor any
other GNOME representative can give you permission to use the
screenshots- you're going to have to figure that out if you can use it
without permission, or tell us what screenshots you're using so we can
help you figure out the permissions.

Do you *need* copyright permissions to use the screenshots?

At least under US copyright law, screenshots probably can't be
copyrighted- they lack sufficient originality. Even if there was a
copyright in the screenshot, you might have a strong fair use defense
against any infringement claim, since presumably no commercial
interests are being damaged and you're using this as part of a larger
educational use. I am not a lawyer, and so if you have any doubt, you
should consult your own lawyer or the lawyer of the journal in which
you seek to publish on both of these claims.

What about trademark?

You're pretty clearly not representing that you are the GNOME project,
or that you distribute the GNOME project, or anything of that sort.
Again, I am not a lawyer, and know nothing of Canadian law, but as
long as you make it clear that the screenshots are of GNOME software,
and say something like 'GNOME software is available from
http://gnome.org/' to indicate that you are not the source and did not
create the software, it seems likely that you will not be causing any
problems, either for us or for yourself. Without knowing exactly how
you plan to use the screenshots, it is hard to suggest specific
wording that would make sense.

Sorry this answer is so convoluted; the question is a little complex.
Hope that clarified, to the greatest extent possible- please let me
know if there is anything else I can do. Good luck getting your paper
done and published-

Luis