[Clipart] License problem for cards clipart

[Nathan Eady]

> I just browsed into the open clip art library and I discovered that
> four cliparts for cards signs are very similar to those I use and I
> originaly designed for my SVG-cards deck. You can find them in
> http://www.openclipart.org/cgi-bin/navigate/recreation/games/cards
> and you can find my svg-cards at http://david.bellot.free.fr
> I'm not sure for the diamond and heart because the design is still
> very simple but I am pretty sure spade and club signs because the
> construction is exactly the same as mine. The problem is the
> following : this signs come from my SVG-cards which is released under
> LGPL and not as Public Domain. So I cannot accept to see part of my
> work re-released under a Public Domain license.
> Please make sure those signs are an original work from the author and
> not a copy of mine. I am already convinced that it is a copy of my
> work with a change in the license. In particular, the design of the
> club sign is exactly the same and I did it lije that because of a
> limitation I had with Adobe Illustrator by the time I made the
> version version of my deck.
>
> Thank you for your consideration,
> David Bellot

To clarify, are you talking about the ones that were submitted
by Jean-Victor Balin?

Also, have you actually looked at the source XML and compared?

If you're just going by what the images look like, I've got
half a dozen packs of cards at home that were commercially
printed prior to the invention of SVG (or, for that matter,
XML), and yet their symbols bear some quite striking
resemblances to yours.  Ordinarily, the act of redrawing
something does not create an original work, but the basic
shapes of the four card suit symbols are not, as far as I
am aware, legally encumbered.  I would not be confident that
one SVG rendition of them were copied from another unless I
saw similarities at the path data level or some quite
distinctive and unusual visual feature.