[Commons-l] COA copyright policies and other legal stuff,..

Mon Jul 10 03:05:27 UTC 2006

On 7/9/06, Daniel Kinzler <daniel at brightbyte.de> wrote:
> Yes - logos appearing in a larger context are OK. Just *how* large that
> context must be is subject of interpretation... a street scene that
> contains some logos somewhere is probably ok. A picture showing nothing
> but a Coca Cola can? Not sure about that.

Trademark, being a lot more context-dependent than copyright is except
for fair use / fair dealing, makes things complicated here.

For example, many everyday objects have on them the trademarked logos
of their creators.  Sometimes very prominently.  In addition, the
shape of a designed object can be trademarked under some
circumstances, and in addition can carry some copyright as well, in
addition to such concepts as "design rights".

Thus, pretty much any photograph of a human-made object is not
completely free - there are always things that could be protected, and
in a world where people increasingly seek legal protection for things,
this is going to come up more and more.

-Matt