Questions tagged [copyright]
For questions about the property right statutorily granted to creative works. Please see the tag wiki and FAQ before asking the question.
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Using a company's logo in reference to something
I've seen a few instances recently where an app or website uses another company's logo and brand name in reference to something.
Some examples include using an internet service provider's logo and ...
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Web scraping of an online dictionary
1.I made a web scraper of an online dictionary. It scrapes and saves to a text file definitions and examples of sentences of words in a list. I want to make this scraper publicly available on GitHub. ...
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Copyright Timeline Question
Imagine the following sequence of events . . .
You finish a book and submit a copyright application on November 1, 2023.
You publish the book and begin selling it on November 15.
Someone pirates the ...
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Is a private individual shopping for personal goods from companies "non-commercial"?
Suppose Alice is interested in buying something for her personal use, completely unrelated to her work or making money. She investigates the products produced by Bob Inc. and Charlie Corp., both for-...
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software copyright for microservice using frameworks in cloud environment
I am trying to work on a new web software project, using the same web framework and tech stack that I used for previous project where its copyright has been granted to someone else.
The problem is ...
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Copyright risks for code contributed by generative AI
Suppose a company is developing software, and an engineer/coder uses some code generated by Code LLaMA or some similar generative AI.
Microsoft has brought out copilot, which does a similar thing and ...
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What stops stolen software from offering a valid license?
A common pattern in software distribution is to have an installer program that pops up and offers the user a license to the software, and prompts the user to accept it. This End User License Agreement ...
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Copyright and Fair use: Logos
Some companies have written articles about my website. Many of the articles were also interviews.
My question is - can I use the Logos of the companies on my website under the "fair use" ...
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Is it fair use of copyright to create and distribute a simulation model from a copyrighted schematic?
Let's say if company A developed an electronic product.
A published the product's datasheet on its website free to the public, copyright of the datasheet is owned by A. One part of the datasheet is ...
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Can a court’s decision be copyrighted?
See this page:
If the citation column does not include a hyperlink, then copyright restrictions prevent BAILII from publishing the judgment (missing cases may be available on other commercial/...
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Crypto currencies, gambling, copyrights [closed]
I am a programmer and i have been offered the possibility to work for someone on the other side of the world to write a crypto program that would allow users to gamble their crypto currencies.
The ...
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Would a user of the Stack Exchange API be liable for re-publishing copyright infringing data?
Data obtained from the Stack Exchange API is cc-wiki licensed.
This license explicitly encourages the user of the API to copy, redistribute, remix and transform the data obtained from the API for any ...
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Attributing Copyright to Individual vs Business
An individual (e.g. Bob Jones) establishes his own business (incorporated as BJ LLC). He then self-publishes a book. Are there any legal advantages to copyrighting the book under his name versus the ...
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Is it fair use to include unpurchased media in a website that is still under development?
When a new website is being built for a client, it often begins as a "development" site that uses one or more methods to make sure that it is not accessible by normal and customary means. ...
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What countries don't have fair use in copyright law?
I know that Japan is one of these countries without fair use, are there any others?
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Obtaining right to copy music for private use?
If I wish to obtain the right to copy music for private use, how do I do that? Or do I need to do that?
There is an organization called ASCAP that will sell rights to publicly perform music, like in a ...
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Short Weak Copyleft Software License [migrated]
Is there a short weak (or strong) copyleft license?
I like the GPL v3. The way that all its different sections interlock is quite poetic. However, this beauty comes at the cost of it being near ...
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Why are authors suing Meta and OpenAI instead of Shawn Presser for copyright infringement?
Various authors are suing OpenAI and Meta for alleged copyright infringement in using the authors' works to train the companies' large language models (LLMs).
My understanding is that OpenAI has ...
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Can I use known YouTube video cartoon characters on an educational children app? [duplicate]
I'm developing a children app to teach vocabulary, how to talk and to read. I have different categories (23 at the moment) and around 400 items so far. I though in using a Characters category and ...
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Legality of graphical representation of "Jell-O" [duplicate]
There are Photoshop tutorials that show you how to create the world "Jell-O" with characters that actually look like Jell-O. However, I believe the word Jell-O is protected by copyright, ...
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Is PostScript language copyrightable (Adobe license)
Perhaps a repetitive question, but since a lot of things work on the PostScript language (even PDF is technically derived from PostScript), I think it is worth taking a look at this thread.
In the ...
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When does official copyright protection begin?
Artistic works are copyrighted by default, of course. However, filing an official copyright application confers additional benefits. But does one have to wait until a copyright application has been ...
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Is making 3d models of something, against copyright laws? [duplicate]
Is it considered a copyright infringement if I make a 3D model/print of cars like BMW or persons like actors? I have seen people already selling such 3D files or physical models. How does it work?
If ...
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Is it legal to 3D scan anything and how are 'shapes' protected?
I'm surprised there are almost no questions on this site about 3D scanning and its legal implications on patents, copyrights, whatever laws or regulation apply on it.
As of 2023, 3D printing is ...
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Is it trademark infringement if there is no ambiguity that you're not the brand? - E.g., notMicrosoft, AppleIsBad [duplicate]
Related:
Copyright laws regarding using the suffix of an established Brand name
Is it trademark infringement if you put the word 'not' in front?
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Would a copyright disclaimer estop any future claim of protection?
Suppose a person creates an original work that would qualify for copyright protection. But then that creator publishes the work and claims that it was actually created by some long-dead artist, which ...
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Do I have to keep encryption keys secret if I know they decrypt copyrighted content that was distributed without authorization?
Say someone else posts an encrypted file online, and challenges people to decrypt it.
Say I download the file headers, and I manage to determine the password. (Maybe it was a made-up word that only me ...
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How does the law decide who a computer is?
Is there any established logic for deciding who (software author, computer owner, local user, person who sent a remote command, etc.) is responsible for the actions of a computer?
Say that 1000 copies ...
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Can a software license be conditional on the actions of others?
I recently had an idea for a "threshold conditional" software license that works like this:
Any person/entity can purchase a license and gain the unconditional right to use the software any ...
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Does the UK text and data mining exception to copyright allow non-commercial projects free use of anything on the internet to train their models?
On the UK government page on Exceptions to copyright the text and data mining exception is described as:
Text and data mining is the use of automated analytical techniques to analyse text and data ...
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Does the UK time-shifting exception to copyright allow viewing beyond the end of a subscription period?
On the UK government page on Exceptions to copyright the time-shifting exception is described as:
A recording of a broadcast can be made in domestic premises for private and domestic use to enable it ...
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Can I get copyright protection for someone else's character?
Say someone publishes a book featuring a minor side character, with a name but without the sort of strong character trait delineation that would qualify the character for copyright protection.
Say I ...
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Facts sufficient to construct a copy of a copyrighted work
In this answer, it is mentioned that facts about a copyrighted work, such as lists of how many times they use each word, are not really derivative works because, as facts, they aren't subject to ...
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Can my music player app have the same name as a musician band? It's common words
Can my music player app have the same name as a musician band? It's common words.
For example, let's say there is a group called "Black Stones" (this is not the name, just an example). And I ...
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Differences between patent and copyright
I'm reading "Open Source Licensing" by Lawrence Rosen.
At page 30 there is written:
A patent differs from a copyright in a fundamental way: A copyright prevents a third party from copying ...
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Legality of AI-generated picture of famous person
A number of online sites that sell the rights to use images commercially now offer artificial intelligence-generated images. Some people claim they aren't really legal, because the AI is "trained&...
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Can I use apple ios emojis on my website?
I'm building a small in-browser game and want to use png images of apple emojis in main menu. Here's how it looks:
I composed these emojis into background pictures for every game mode and added a ...
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Is a third party allowed to develop a visually exact copy of a formerly MIT licensed software?
My team at a non profit organization designed and developed a niche software product starting 2012. It was licensed under the MIT license until January 2022. Thereafter the license changed to a ...
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Can I make an intermediate copy of an entire work for the purpose of enabling me to criticize it?
A recent question asked about the practice of transcribing music for hire.
Say I would like to publish a critical analysis of a song. In the process of preparing this analysis I need to actually ...
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Dual Question: Are music transcription services legal? How to legally share/sell music transcriptions?
Is it legal to charge for the service of transcribing music for a customer? For example, if someone requests that I transcribe a copyrighted song for them, is it legal for me to do this and charge a ...
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What happens to illegally produced copies when the producer settles?
Say I download a copyright-protected album, and, without licence, make it available for download on a peer to peer network, distributing it to 10,000 of my closest friends.
Then I get a letter from a ...
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Watching bootleg DVDs [duplicate]
Say that, for my upcoming birthday, someone gifts me a copy of the hit film Shrek 2 on DVD.
Say that, instead of being professionally pressed and shrink-wrapped, my new copy of Shrek 2 is a shiny DVD+...
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Can I be copyrighted for using a scream in my song?
I found this video of Yoko Ono screaming at some art show on YouTube and I thought that it would resemble fabulously with a song I was making at the time. The video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
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Is voice copyrightable after death?
In my country copyright is barely a thing.
There was a well-known voice-actor in my country who died several years ago. He spoke on so many advertisements and animations.
After his death one person ...
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Are fan games legal?
"Fan games" are video games made by fans using a popular intellectual property, without license. Are they protected by "fair use" or are the IP holders just allowing it?
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I want to have someone cover a song for a documentary. What are the steps? [duplicate]
I am producing a documentary based on the Native American Culture and I want to have a Native Singer cover a pop song, written by Sia. What are the steps? It is just going to be used for the ...
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Is it legal to circumvent DVD CSS to create a backup for private use in Australia?
There are two issues at play here. The first is that, in 2006, it was deemed legal to make a backup of a "cinematograph film" for private and domestic use in an amendment to the Copyright ...
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Can a journal legally publish research conducted on copyrighted data?
This is about the following question on Academia.SE. The OP in that question says that they have acquired some copyrighted data, which was made available to them on condition that they don't analyze ...
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If a group of people share individual de minimis sections of a copyrighted work, sufficient to reconstruct the work, is this copyright infringement?
Suppose a group of people share small segments of a copyrighted work in a chat room. If the song "Amazing Grace" were still under copyright, it could go something like this:
<A> ...
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Fair use question relating to copyright law [duplicate]
Good day. I currently work in the publishing field, but have a unique inquiry regarding fair use related to copyright law; I am interested in launching an executive summary service to assist busy ...
