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erkin
Are any ponies truly free?
If I'm not mistaken, copyright extends to the specific appearance of characters depicted in (visual) art, so the fact that someone drew a pony "from scratch" and released it under a free license does not necessarily mean the art is free. Wikimedia Commons (Wikipedia's repository of free images and media) has some (non-legal, non-professional) information on this.
Perhaps we should take a closer look at which ponies are considered free, but there is original art under /extraponies that is released under free licenses and thus are unquestionably free.
unquestionably
IMNLO (In my non-legal opinion), copyright would extend to the specific body shape and style, so in a broad interpretation of copyright protection, no pony is free (hence the title of this issue). In any case, I think the issue is not as clear as you might think.
Even ignoring that, permission would still be needed from the original creators of fan characters such as Snowdrop and Button's mom.
If is for permission Jan, SFS have tumblr account to contact, I have Wiggles permission for Coffee Talk, Sea Breeze, Drizzle, Freckles, Speckles, Thranduelk, Shelf and they Sombra version. My Jristz is was created from 0 by me so... captain obvious.
So those have permission or is easy to get in contact with the original artist / creator / whatever El 28/10/2014 20:56, "J1G (The Gray)" [email protected] escribió:
unquestionably
IMNLO (In my non-legal opinion), copyright would extend to the specific body shape and style, so in a broad interpretation of copyright protection, no pony is free (hence the title of this issue). In any case, I think the issue is not as clear as you might think.
Even ignoring that, permission would still be needed from the original creators of fan characters such as Snowdrop and Button's mom.
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/erkin/ponysay/issues/214#issuecomment-60852684.
@jristz:
So those have permission or is easy to get in contact with the original artist / creator / whatever
Still a few issues:
- If I'm not mistaken, we would need actual permission already given, not just an assurance that they will give permission in the future. That's not how copyright works.
- I am still concerned about the body shape. I would think that a generic model drawing would qualify for copyright protection, meaning that any pony in the same style is a derivative work and thus non-free.
(This is not legal advice and should not be trusted. It is always best to consult a lawyer or legal professional for these issues.)
I don't think the body shape is copyright protected. A pony is a pony and nopony can have copyright, trademark or patent on animals as they are part of nature.
However aspects suchs as the colourfulness and the cutiemarks could (perhaps) be trademarked but I don't think copyright protected. But Bonnie Zacherle holds a design pattern and I would think it covers other aspects of the ponies than the shape. Even if it covers the shape I doubt our images are of high resolution enough to capture such aspects of the shape.
Tthere are still non-ponies that are not subject to these matters, but could be perhaps be subject to similar things. Discord and some dragons in particular as the other non-ponies are rather natural things.
Real ponies are quite different from My Little Pony ponies. The main differences I can see are the size of the legs and hooves relative to the body, and the shape of the head. If you want to draw real ponies/horses in different colors, I think that would be fine. (Colors can't be copyrighted, and I doubt any trademark exists on these colors.)
Similarly, Discord has a lot of features that distinguish him from dragons in medieval depictions. But if you took a dragon from a medieval (public-domain) depiction and added some basic "draconequine" features (such as wings and a hoof), that would be fine.
That deppend, If you take a MLP:FiM pony and add the propper equine body and propper placed wings that could be totally recongnizable as a MLP:FiM pony. like this Rainbow Dash or This too, so I dont that draw style is the thisg to define. But as I (a non-legal-non-read-non-noting) opinion, I thing all depend on what the guy that see the image thig, you know, something completly dependiong on the lawyer that see the image and the judge/ruler that look it.
@jristz Yeah, that's what I mean; those could potentially be free. But the ponies here are not in that "realistic" style, so...
But im part is the problem of eith the limited size that we have the ponies can have so many details. removing one pixel-line from the hoves-to-up make they have so much small legs that is spected or in some cases make they unable to have outlines (and not all have ones either) but there is the body, if I add one extra pixel of size (up or down) that could work to make more normal.
but there is the eyes, the door to the soul (Quote of Pablo Neruda, I think), fillies have smaller eyes but giving those eyes to adults could bring the problem fo what eyes for filies. (bigger manes could help to make less weird).
Even if us add all that they could be look so close to the original in the acual size and upsize 500+ ponies is not easy without a guideliness or a base that have the problems fixed.
So If someone know a more realistic base to use that is not so big (compare “ponysay -F -o coffeetalk” and “ponysay -f -o celestia” for sizes) could make all easier, but that could take time.
So if someone provide a beter idea of a good base for fillies and ponies then the port could be maded.
...but there is Celestia... she IS a horse using (in ponysay) horsey base...
2014-10-29 22:48 GMT-03:00 J1G (The Gray) [email protected]:
@jristz https://github.com/jristz Yeah, that's what I mean; those could potentially be free. But the ponies here are not in that "realistic" style, so...
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/erkin/ponysay/issues/214#issuecomment-61034371.
Pablo Lezaeta