[Bf-committers] copyright and suzanne

[Robert Wenzlaff]

On Wednesday 15 December 2004 08:47, john tuffen wrote:

> > > [QUOTE] There is no simple rule concerning how much of a work may be
> > > taken before it rises to the level of infringement. Obviously, the
> > > more a work is copied, the easier it is to show substantial
> > > similarity.
> > > ...[/QUOTE]
> >
> > I don't think a music analogy applies.  No matter how much work you add
> > when you are done it's still music.
>
> When dealing with synthesised sound/sample-use (using a sound/sample as a
> basic building block much the same way as a mesh is a basic building
> block), I see a direct analogy.
>
> Typically, a synthesiser manufacturer does not copyright the sounds in a
> sound module - even when they are very distinctive...

Well, that's closer to an applicable analogy, but Tom M's original example was 
talking about copying existing music into music.  You are at least one level 
removed by copying "sounds" into music.   The image equivilent of what he's 
desribing would be copying a photo off someone's website, and using it in a 
colage.  What you're describing would be like pulling an image off a website 
and using it as a bumpmap in Blender.

Where a sound stops being just a sound, and starts being music is arbitrary, 
but the fact that the synth manufacturers don't copyright them, says _they_ 
don't consider them "music".  And in fact, the maufacturer has a copyright on 
the sounds, even if they never file for one explicitly.  A copyright 
implicitly exists for all copyrightable works.  Registering a copyright is 
just a convinience step provided by the government so you never have to try 
to "prove" you made it first.  If someone choses not to enforce their implied 
copyright it, or issues a licence as part of the purchase of the synth, 
(which is probably hidden in the fine print of the manual) that is their 
business.

Applying Blender's GPL to any pic with Suzanne in it is more akin to trying to 
apply the copyright of the schematic diagram of the synthisizer to music the 
synth makes.  Even though the schematic describes the curcuit that makes the 
music, no part of that schematic actually becomes part of the music.

Anyway, I think we've beaten this to death.   Images from Blender are not 
subject to the GPL any more than your MS word docs are covered by MS's 
EULA.
-- 
******************************************************
Why can't life be as easy as second-order homogeneous
 differential equations with constant coefficients?
******************************************************
Robert Wenzlaff        rwenzlaff at soylent-green.con