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[Ethnar]

Fun fact, the entertainment industry is currently lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would make showing any content over the internet that's from copyrighted work illegal. So all the LPs on Youtube, or the forum LPs containing game images, all of that would be technically illegal to post without prior consent.

So whether its difficult to establish a SS's origin or not, its a matter for consideration.

Heh, that made my day, thank you for sharing.

To me it falls the same category as people demanding you delete your photos you just made while walking down the street because they are on it. Geez, you're in public place, doing stuff visible in public, you pretty much agree what you're doing is public...

People being troubled with this stuff makes me feel wobbly. Oh well, I better go back under my cozy rock. Eh, humanity... *giggle*

[Siquo]

Wiki agrees, unless the company/owner states otherwise, it's fair use. (See also the references for more info)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot#Copyright_issues

To me it falls the same category as people demanding you delete your photos you just made while walking down the street because they are on it.

Not really... that's actually a shady area, but it's usually illegal to publish those pictures.

[Satarus]

Under US copyright law, Fair Use includes taking excepts of copyrighted material for commentary, criticism, library archiving, and news reporting.  So as long as you aren't reproducing substantial portions of the game (which would be hard considering the medium) and are not taking credit for the works then you should be fine.

[Kay12]

Then again, how is one supposed to tell whether a given scene is from DF or just other CP437 artwork?

I think (with my vastly lacking knowledge regarding copyrights ^^) that's the reason no one tries to copyright screenshots material, only logos/etc.

Well, pictures can be copyrighted... but the question is, when is a screenshot actually created by the creator of the program? Sprites, backdrops and such are naturally creations in themselves, but DF... from a graphical POV, Toady has simply taken an already existing character set (CP437) and made a program that arranges them into neat patterns. I don't think that gives him the copyright to every pattern his program could ever create.

[Siquo]

I don't think that gives him the copyright to every pattern his program could ever create.

The same could be said about "arrangements of pixels" . If it was created using his program, or is indistinguishable from something created with his program (unless it's very generic, but DF's menu structure identifies it pretty well), Tarn has the copyright. So no, not every pattern, just the ones made with DF. If you do your best to create something that looks like a DF screenshot with another program, you're also clearly infringing on that copyright.

AFAIK, of course, IANAL

[Kay12]

I don't think that gives him the copyright to every pattern his program could ever create.

The same could be said about "arrangements of pixels" . If it was created using his program, or is indistinguishable from something created with his program (unless it's very generic, but DF's menu structure identifies it pretty well), Tarn has the copyright. So no, not every pattern, just the ones made with DF.

I seriously doubt Toady has the sole right to use clubs and spades to represent trees.

As for the pixel argument - a mere 8x8 block has 64 pixels/tiles. With 32-bit coloring, the amount of possible colorings is practically infinite, and the chances of it "just happening to be the same" are very, very, VERY much lower than with 8-bit CP437 matching... (EDIT: adding 4 color bits to CP437 still yields very low collision chances compared to pixels)

The menu patterns are a different thing, though. They're created by Toady, not created by a program created by Toady.

[jens03]

Hi again. I got a PM from Toady. Its Ok for me to use screenshots of the game for the article.

Jens

[Siquo]

Hi again. I got a PM from Toady. Its Ok for me to use screenshots of the game for the article.

Jens

Good.

Now leave us alone, we're arguing about pixels!