Does anyone know if it is ok that I use clipart from a purchased software program for my game. I believe they are royalty free and I would not be copyrighting their artwork but it would be included in the overall copyright for the game. I contacted the company and they sent me their License agreement but it is in legal mumbo jumbo and I cannot determine if it is ok to use.
Any thoughts would be apprciated.
Thanks, Mike
Clip art is like fonts.
When purchased (as a set or standalone), you are allowed to use it.
This said, you cannot copyright it as yours, and you will see same art on things outside of yours.
This is my understanding, having to deal with stock photography and Font usages.
How you may use it is another matter. You may be licensed to use it for only personal or non-profit use such as a school or church flyer.
The clipart agreements I have read do not allow for commercial purposes.
Fonts have a very strange position in copyright law. It is sort of half-art, half-tool. And, thus, case law treats it slightly differently than normal pieces of artwork.
To my knowledge, the program that is required to produce the font is a copyrightable object (so you may not share it with a printer unless you have permission to do so) but rasteurized the font is a firewall to claims of infringement. Case law permits you to 'trace' a letter and use it as a means of communication without the permission of the person who created that letter. So, there is no way once a font as been rasteurized to be able to tell (based upon the flat PDF) whether you used the code that produced the font or traced it.
However, use in a digital product will most likely require a license.
Don't know about clipart caselaw... so if I were you I would read the license agreement carefully and also consider whether you can find something in the creative commons instead.
You at least have the opportunity to read the agreement. Since we cannot, not having it in front of us, there's nobody here who can tell you what the agreement says and therefore if the clip art is safe to use. A lawyer couldn't even tell you without seeing the agreement.
When I first started in this business in 2008. I hired, and to this day retain an intellectual properties Attorney out of Missoula Montana. We had many talks and one of them was protection of the art work I have paid to have made for our games.
His reply went something like this. If they just make very minor changes who is to say they did not draw it first...usually you have to prove damages...what will that cost? Maybe they have a receipt showing they made money from it from a friend two years before you published it...can we prove it is a false receipt? Don't worry too much...do something today ask for forgiveness tomorrow!
You don't want to hear what he said about defending our games!
Wow. Just wow. You paid for this advice?
Wow. Just wow. You paid for this advice?
I suggest not paying this attorney's bill and asking for forgiveness the day after :-))
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