[Commons-l] flags

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Hello,

Wikimedia Commons currently insists all images to have a free license. I
completely agree with this policy. However, I have a question about the
license of a flag.

A flag is a sort of drawing. If I find a flag somewhere on the internet,
it may not be free. If the flag is correct, and I would create another
correct flag, however, it would be exactly the same, and it would be
free. Legally, drawing the same flag again, pixel for pixel, would alter
its license, wouldn't it?

If so, can I let an image program do this? Suppose I find a correct flag
in .gif format, download it, convert it to .png. It then is a different
flag with the same content. If the license of the source is unknown,
what do I know about the license of the new .png?

It may be a derivative work, but the result would have been exactly the
same if I would have followed the exact instructions at
http://www.freewebs.com/mahabadassociation/flag.html . It confuses me:
can a flag be licensed at all?

regards,
Gerrit Holl.

-- 
Weather in Twenthe, Netherlands 14/11 10:25:
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-- 
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of
unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist.
    -Dwight David Eisenhower, January 17, 1961

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