Bug#678229: Copyright
>> The skins of tilem contain photographs of TI calculators (e.g. file
>> ti86.skn includes a jpeg picture of a TI-86 calculator at offset 0x571).
>>
>> I assume TI has the copyright for the design of the calculators. Is there
>> no copyright issue in using photographs of these products as skins for
>> non
>> TI software?
I don't know; obviously I'm not a lawyer. If you have any evidence,
one way or the other, as to whether this is legally permissible,
please let us know.
Some things to consider:
- There are many calculator emulators out there, both for TI
calculators and for other brands, and virtually all of them have user
interfaces that mimic the design of the original calculator to some
extent. Many are based on photographs, others on line drawings or
computer-generated images with varying levels of realism.
- The actual layout of the keyboard (positions of the calculator keys
and the labels on them) would, I think, be considered "functional"
rather than "creative" and therefore not copyrightable.
(Specifically, it could be argued that reproducing the physical
keyboard layout is essential to ensure compatibility with third-party
software.)
- TI is well aware of the existence of third-party emulators (indeed,
TilEm itself was mentioned at one point on the website for the
official TI-83 Plus SDK.) TI has agressively enforced their
copyrights against people distributing copyrighted ROM images. I have
never once heard of a complaint concerning the use of a photo of a
calculator, either for use in an emulator or for any other purpose.
- Debian already includes TiEmu, which, like TilEm, includes skins
based on photos of the calculator models it supports.
Benjamin
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