Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

blogs.kde.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 168 posts

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#61

Post by Argorak »

jacquesm wrote: post #49

http://web.archive.org/web/20020808140127im_/http://www.true... On the left hand side of that image you see a little segment that conists of a hand, an eye and an ear. Those stand for interaction, video and audio. TrueTech hired Jonathan Kraij, a talented young designer to make that logo and it was featured in many places, magazines such as wave and many others besides in the late 90's. Not three weeks after one prom…

While you are right, a lot of the backlash is somewhat deserved: Sony was and is aggressive in pursuing their copyrights, which is part of the damage to their brand.

I don't think they did this on purpose. But they are part of a group of companies that don't care about those complexities when they sue others on copyright grounds, so they should tread very carefully there.

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#62

Post by manaskarekar »

freehunter wrote: post #57
polshaw wrote: post #38

This leads me to a legal question about GPL stuff.. Say the guys at KDE threw their full legal might behind this- what would happen to Sony? Obviously they would be required to change it (or include the GPL licence), but is that all? What kind of 'damages' could be claimed in such a situation?.. ie what is the risk to Sony in doing this. NB i'm using this (somewhat trivial) example to talk about GPL violation more br…

Well, it is still copyright infringement. It doesn't matter if the copyright says you can do whatever you want as long as you mention our license, if you don't follow the terms you're still infringing on their copyright.

I think he's asking about stuff like 'What kind of damages can KDE claim due to "lost sales", since it's not software that is usually sold.'

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#63

Post by Amadou »

rmc wrote: post #43
rossy wrote: post #19

I wonder if this happens because of open source being mistaken for public domain. I've definitely had lecturers who confuse the two.

What's funny is that is' happening both ways. Lots of people are confusing "copyright infringement" with "claiming another work as your own". There was an article here about mundane/average computer users trying to use copyrighted music tracks on YouTube, and it being banned. Users were confused how it was being taken down for 'copyright infringement' when the person wasn't claiming it was their music.

Attribution is a pretty standard component of the moral rights associated with copyright in many non-US countries. In the US, moral rights (versus economic rights) are hardly protected at all. For the most part they are limited to riding the coat-tails of economic rights.

Yet, as your example shows, the right of attribution is the kind of right that many people naturally perceive as a "fair" part of copyright, much more fair than the right to control distribution.

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#64

Post by belorn »

jacquesm wrote: post #49

http://web.archive.org/web/20020808140127im_/http://www.true... On the left hand side of that image you see a little segment that conists of a hand, an eye and an ear. Those stand for interaction, video and audio. TrueTech hired Jonathan Kraij, a talented young designer to make that logo and it was featured in many places, magazines such as wave and many others besides in the late 90's. Not three weeks after one prom…

Interesting. We should give the benefit of the doubt in cases regarding commercial use from copyright infringement. If its a 9 year old who is downloading a song, then she must be aware of copyright law and thus can't be given the same benefit of the doubt. That girl is a pirate.

Is it just me who thinks this logic is wrong?

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#65

Post by hkmurakami »

kenkam wrote: post #56

Such a shame Sony pirated their artwork. Also, such a shame the article introduces Sony as "the company who created Audio CDs which installed a rootkit on Windows computer to try to stop people copying music", as if Sony needed introduction, especially for people that read the KDE blog. Maybe it would have been more effective to point them out in a matter-of-fact way, tell them to stop or to comply with the licence,…

I thought the quote was appropriate in providing the context in which the irony of Sony's copyright violation in question has taken place.

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#67

Post by belorn »

manaskarekar wrote: post #62
freehunter wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it is still copyright infringement. It doesn't matter if the copyright says you can do whatever you want as long as you mention our license, if you don't follow the terms you're still infringing on their copyright.

I think he's asking about stuff like 'What kind of damages can KDE claim due to "lost sales", since it's not software that is usually sold.'

Lost sales is normally calculated as some hypothetical price tag in the case if Sony had bought a license from KDE. Its what music labels do when calculating damages in p2p cases, rather than looking at the unit cost.

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#68

Post by damoncali »

aviraldg wrote: post #13
viseztrance wrote: post #4

Honest question. Did the author even attempted to contact Sony or anyone in the KDE organization to resolve this issue?

Honest question. Does Sony do the same when someone accidentally uses their licensed material?

The usual corporate response is to send a letter telling the offender to stop.

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#69

Post by cle »

jacquesm wrote: post #49

http://web.archive.org/web/20020808140127im_/http://www.true... On the left hand side of that image you see a little segment that conists of a hand, an eye and an ear. Those stand for interaction, video and audio. TrueTech hired Jonathan Kraij, a talented young designer to make that logo and it was featured in many places, magazines such as wave and many others besides in the late 90's. Not three weeks after one prom…

We all know Sony fucked up in the past but that is no reason to automatically assume they did so again without any proof.

Why not? When somebody or something repeatedly behaves in a certain way, I think it's perfectly valid to assume that they will probably continue behaving that way in the future (unless there is some evidence otherwise, which in Sony's case I personally haven't seen).

Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork

#70

Post by damoncali »

whalesalad wrote: post #23

While this blows ... it's a bummer that companies keep getting blamed when things like this happen. Sure, at some point an employee is a reflection of a company but at the end of the day a person did this. It's easy to point the finger at a big company and use this as fud against them. But really... the correct title should be "Someone who works for Sony pirated KDE artwork."

I get what you're saying- this is almost certainly a case where one employee was either lazy or ignorant and just found a nice icon. Not a big deal. But, it was in the service of a company and the corporation is responsible for it. In a sane world, what that means is that someone from KDE would point it out to them, and Sony would say "Ooops. That was a mistake. We'll change it. Sorry.". Who knows what happens in the real world.
Post reply on HN