Re: copyrighted embedded ICC profiles in images
At Sun, 11 May 2014 19:04:07 -0400,
David Prévot wrote:
> Q. Are profiles copyrighted?
>
> A. ICC has no formal position on the use of profiles. It is really up to
> the software vendor. However, since the software vendor effectively
> holds copyright on the profile (which is specified in a tag) the licence
> to use their software permits them to prohibit public posting of
> profiles. One of their motivations could be that if such profiles could
> be freely exchanged it would limit the number of sales of their
> software. Also, from a technical perspective it is dangerous to publish
> such profiles for many devices. A profile for a printer, for example, is
> only valid for the substrate and inks for which it was made and it is
> for this reason that few device manufacturers publish profiles for their
> devices.
>
> Any ICC profile is produced using proprietary software. All ICC define
> is the nature of the tags, which tags are mandatory and which are
> optional, and how the data should be defined in them. The contents of
> the tables are vendor specific and each uses different algorithms. It is
> this that gives the vendor something which they can copyright.
That isn't really a clear and useful answer, but what I read is that:
- Algorithms to generate ICC profiles can be copyrighted. (More precise
would be to a specific implementation of such algorithm can be
copyrighted)
- Proprietary software vendors could prohibit public posting of
included profiles in their software license.
But if profiles are copyrightable they would not have to explicitely
prohibit such action.
According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile) "an
ICC profile is set of data that characterizes a color input or output
device, or a color space". It looks like an ICC profile contains just
facts and mere facts aren't copyrightable.
Kind regards,
Jeroen Dekkers
Reply to: