[Clipart] Inclusion of copyrighted logo in your library

[Jonadab the Unsightly One]

Jose Hevia <jose.francisco.hevia at gmail.com> writes:

> I had multiple times released logos as public domain. Reason is I
> consider very useful to have a repository when I could get a vector
> "tux" for giving a presentation (hey, inkscape had one in examples
> directory from Sodipodi's days!!) or the blender icon for my desktop
> as the blender foundation doesn't give you one.

The thing is, you can only release an image into the public domain if
you are the copyright holder.  NO ONE ELSE CAN DO IT.  I don't just
mean no one else is _allowed_ to do it; I mean no one else is _able_
to do it.  If I say, "I hereby release the Microsoft Windows logo into
the public domain", it's still not released into the public domain,
because I am not the copyright holder, and the copyright holder has
not released it.

For example, you can only release Tux into the public domain if you
are Larry Ewing.

> I think this is not bad "per se", if the logo is copyrighted and
> trademarked you have the right to fight abuses but there are uses in
> which the use of a copyrighted logo is needed. How do you represent
> a Windows or Mac partition without resembling trademarked icons?

The existence of permissible uses does not imply that the item is
public domain.  Public domain means that nobody has the right to fight
any use or abuse, or that the right has been explicitely waived.  For
instance, the musical work "Air on AG String" is in the public domain
because the composer died in A.D. 1750, which is considerably more
than 70 years ago (or is it 90 years now?  Whatever), and also because
copyright terms (if they even existed) were rather shorter then.

I agree that it would be useful to have a collection of these logos,
but the Open Clip Art Library is a public domain clip art collection,
and these logos are not suitable for inclusion in such a collection.

-- 
Open Clip Art Library:  Drawing Together
http://www.openclipart.org/