In post Aaron world, come on. Seriously?
Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
121–130 of 168 posts
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#122The KDE Developer that wrote this needs to take a deep breath...they asked: "Should KDE e.V. and Nuno's Oxygen friends start a new business model by sueing them for everything they're worth?" Really? Sue them for all they are worth? Go ahead and try, but you need money to sue and no Judge is going to award you "All they are worth" over an icon. You haven't lost anything with Sony using this icon. You have gained beca…
If you look at it under current copyright law, every time Sony has distributed this icon without the GPL (e.g., the page on which it resides has been viewed) can be considered an infringement of the original artist's copyright. Sony would be liable for between $750 and $150,000 per instance. Say this page has been viewed 100,000 times.
That's 100,000 violations of the original copyright. Statutory damages awarded could be upward of $75,000,000. We balk at these figures when applied to eight year olds and grandmothers, because these figures were oriented towards companies and individuals that violate copyright in order to profit from it.
RIAA can sue individuals for violating their copyright by distributing music files; artists should be able to sue Sony right back for violating their copyright by distributing their icon without following the stipulations set out by the original artist. That's how copyright law is supposed to work, anyways.
And no, they haven't "lost" anything. But Sony still broke the law.
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#123Unfortunately, I honestly think the best course of action is to sue Sony for every penny possible.
The case needs to get as much press and possible, and people need to see how completely ridiculous the whole thing is. More and more cases like this need to tie up the court system, wasting everyone's time and money.
This is the only way we'll get copyright reform.
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#124http://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…
Most of the copyright cartels like Sony fight against giving people the benefit of the doubt in copyright. So they are not entitled to it any more.
*(They promote automatic systems that will kick people off the internet after 3 strikes, they promote things like YouTube copyright detection software, etc.)
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really they should have handled this the same way as the other case. Sent a 600€ request (or 6000€) for a donation to KDE and a NDA and possibly a licensing agreement. It's pretty clear Sony did not intend to do this and most likely just a placeholder image left in by mistake. Who at Sony would think saving 300$ on designing the image outweighs the risk of this.
It's pretty clear Sony did not intend to do this How can you say this? If you've ever worked in a corporate environment, you know that layers and layers of reviews and supervision and requirements exist to prevent any mis-step. If this image flew through that process, then Sony knows what it did. I think you're making an unwarranted assumption. My assumption about Sony's massive, multi-review process is far more like…
I think you're making an unwarranted assumption. My assumption about Sony's massive, multi-review process is far more likely to be upheld by fact.
I sincerely doubt your assumption will be upheld. I've worked at large multi-nationals, I currently run an agency which does design services for large multinational companies. Not once have I heard nor seen anyone do something like run an icon set for a support page through something like TinEye or Google Image Search to search for possible copyright infringement.
Legal resources at a company tend to be scarce and expensive, and this would be a waste and there's too much gray area in design copyright to make this sort of thing feasible. Also its easier to have your internal teams just do their job and design icons from scratch, outside contractors are going to be bound by contracts to ensure the work they provide is adequately licensed and to indemnify the company against any losses if its not.
Not to mention Sony will spend a small bit of money to deal with this slip up as opposed to a great amount of money trying to police every design they use.
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#126The KDE Developer that wrote this needs to take a deep breath...they asked: "Should KDE e.V. and Nuno's Oxygen friends start a new business model by sueing them for everything they're worth?" Really? Sue them for all they are worth? Go ahead and try, but you need money to sue and no Judge is going to award you "All they are worth" over an icon. You haven't lost anything with Sony using this icon. You have gained beca…
> Really? Sue them for all they are worth?
Hyperbole?
> Well, for those that even recognise that it is KDE artwork to begin with.
I think you are confusing copyright with trademarks.
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really they should have handled this the same way as the other case. Sent a 600€ request (or 6000€) for a donation to KDE and a NDA and possibly a licensing agreement. It's pretty clear Sony did not intend to do this and most likely just a placeholder image left in by mistake. Who at Sony would think saving 300$ on designing the image outweighs the risk of this.
You think it only costs $300 to create a top notch icon? You've never met a designer in your life, have you?
Designers overrate their influence. I can certainly get a usable settings icon for less than $300. We're talking about a website to help users use the hardware they already bought, not trying to win a design award.
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#128The KDE Developer that wrote this needs to take a deep breath...they asked: "Should KDE e.V. and Nuno's Oxygen friends start a new business model by sueing them for everything they're worth?" Really? Sue them for all they are worth? Go ahead and try, but you need money to sue and no Judge is going to award you "All they are worth" over an icon. You haven't lost anything with Sony using this icon. You have gained beca…
> You have gained because now there is an subconscious association between Sony and KDE. I can only speak for myself, but I don't think those of us at KDE would find it desirable to have that association in people's minds. I would actually say that would be a negative. > Well, for those that even recognise that it is KDE artwork to begin with. So only artwork which has saturated the public eye warrants protection?
Oh, no, I surely think that Sony did wrong and needs to admit the mistake but that picking and choosing one's battles might be more appropriate here.
I disagree with the author's blog post on making a big stink and "suing them for all they are worth". Yes, maybe just a saying that everyone understands the meaning to but it doesn't lent any credibility or help justify the issue at hand. Which is Sony used the artwork.
When people start tossing around hyperbole it doesn't help, it hinders.
I have less compassion for KDE over this because of the way the blog author worded this. Had the author approached this in a more profession manner than spouting off at the mouth I would be more onboard.
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#129The KDE Developer that wrote this needs to take a deep breath...they asked: "Should KDE e.V. and Nuno's Oxygen friends start a new business model by sueing them for everything they're worth?" Really? Sue them for all they are worth? Go ahead and try, but you need money to sue and no Judge is going to award you "All they are worth" over an icon. You haven't lost anything with Sony using this icon. You have gained beca…
If you look at it under current copyright law, every time Sony has distributed this icon without the GPL (e.g., the page on which it resides has been viewed) can be considered an infringement of the original artist's copyright. Sony would be liable for between $750 and $150,000 per instance. Say this page has been viewed 100,000 times. That's 100,000 violations of the original copyright. Statutory damages awarded cou…
They did and they should make it right.
But the blog author spouting off at the mouth instead of proposing this in a more profession manner doesn't help people side with KDE at all.
Re: Sony Pirates KDE Artwork
#130Unfortunately, I honestly think the best course of action is to sue Sony for every penny possible. The case needs to get as much press and possible, and people need to see how completely ridiculous the whole thing is. More and more cases like this need to tie up the court system, wasting everyone's time and money. This is the only way we'll get copyright reform.
A part of me would like to see such a torching strategy. Yet I feel a strong resistance from another part of myself -- a part of me that believes that OSS would do better by taking the high road, by continuing to be one of the few areas/markets/communities, commercial or otherwise, that lives the life it preaches for the world.
If OSS devolves to "one of the pack", then I feel like we'd lose something fundamental and core to the only viable players for the moral high ground strategy. Don't we already have enough companies showing the world how ugly litigation can be?