Using icons from shell32.dll

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Does anyone know if there are any copyright issues with using icons from
shell32.dll in my own application? Can I just grab them with an icon
extractor and do what I like with them without worrying about legal issues?

--- Al.

 

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>Does anyone know if there are any copyright issues with using icons from
>shell32.dll in my own application? Can I just grab them with an icon
>extractor and do what I like with them without worrying about legal issues?

I'd doubt that you could do that - they're bound to be copyrighted.

However, if your program loaded the icons from the DLL at run-time, I
wouldn't imagine there would be any issue with doing that.

Dave
--
MVP VC++ FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/vcfaq

 

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>I'd doubt that you could do that - they're bound to be copyrighted.

Can you copyright a painting? A photograph? A photo,
okay, but you can't copyright the object of the photo,
only the photo itself. You *can* go out and take a shot
of the very same image, even using the original in your
hand as a guide, and your photograph can look EXACTLY
the same, but it's yours, free and clear. So, you have
an icon you like? Take it in view and make your own
bitmap punches of it, and it's yours.

P.S. Don't use VS to edit bitmaps. It's torture.

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hel@40th.com () wrote:

> >I'd doubt that you could do that - they're bound to be copyrighted.
>
>Can you copyright a painting? A photograph?

Yes, both. In many countries the act of making them automatically
acquires copyright. Copying a copyright painting as another painting
is likely to be as much a breach of copyright, as selling prints made
from a phorograph of either the original or a copy of the painting.

> A photo,
>okay, but you can't copyright the object of the photo,
>only the photo itself. You *can* go out and take a shot
>of the very same image, even using the original in your
>hand as a guide, and your photograph can look EXACTLY
>the same, but it's yours, free and clear.

In questions of copyright, it is best to be guided by the law, not
instinct. So I tool a look at Hart & Fazanni, "Intellectual Property
Law (Macmillan, 1997). It is concerned with UK law. It states "if a
photographer uses an existing photograph as a reference point,
reproducing the particular composition ... may well be an infringement
although taken separately".

The same book states that copyright is "irrespective of artistic
quality" so even the simplest icon would seem copyright.

> So, you have
>an icon you like? Take it in view and make your own
>bitmap punches of it, and it's yours.

That sounds like a "derivative work" and very likely to breach
copyright.

I am not a lawyer, but this sounds like the argument that if you
retype Michael Moore's latest book that would give you copyright - and
since copyright would give you the right to publish copies of your
copy of the book. I don't think so.
----------------------------------------
Aandi Inston quite@dial.pipex.com http://www.quite.com
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<hel@40th.com> wrote in message
news:O46W014MEHA.3348@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl
>> I'd doubt that you could do that - they're bound to be copyrighted.
>
> Can you copyright a painting? A photograph? A photo,
> okay, but you can't copyright the object of the photo,
> only the photo itself. You *can* go out and take a shot
> of the very same image, even using the original in your
> hand as a guide, and your photograph can look EXACTLY
> the same, but it's yours, free and clear. So, you have
> an icon you like? Take it in view and make your own
> bitmap punches of it, and it's yours.


I very much doubt that this is the law. Copying an icon from the screen
would seem to be no different from photocopying a book, which does breach
copyright.


--
John Carson
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2. Don't reply to email address (post here instead)

 

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JC [Fri, 7 May 2004 15:41:41 +1000]:
><hel@40th.com> wrote in message
>> Can you copyright a painting? A photograph? A photo,
>> okay, but you can't copyright the object of the photo,
>> only the photo itself. You *can* go out and take a shot
>> of the very same image, even using the original in your
>> hand as a guide, and your photograph can look EXACTLY
>> the same, but it's yours, free and clear. So, you have
>> an icon you like? Take it in view and make your own
>> bitmap punches of it, and it's yours.
>
>
>I very much doubt that this is the law. Copying an icon from the screen
>would seem to be no different from photocopying a book, which does breach
>copyright.

You didn't read that very closely. Or do you want to extend
your argument that taking a picture that exactly duplicates
a copyrighted photograph is somehow ... illegal? How do you
stand without any legs? ahah

--
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On Thu, 6 May 2004 15:15:53 +0100, "TVR Fan" <nosuch@address.com>
wrote:

>Does anyone know if there are any copyright issues with using icons from
>shell32.dll in my own application? Can I just grab them with an icon
>extractor and do what I like with them without worrying about legal issues?

In the past, Microsoft encouraged developers to use their icons and
bitmaps for toolbars and such, since it improves usability of
applications by making the user interface more consistent.

I don't know whether they have continued this stance; however, they
explicitly allow you to use many of them; e.g., displaying a message
box loads an icon from some DLL or another; displaying a common dialog
or shell dialog automatically uses others.

(This certainly does not apply to graphics developed by other software
companies or graphic artists; they will not be happy if you steal
their hard work, whether by resource extraction or screen scraping.)

--
Sev

 

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<hel@40th.com> wrote in message
news:uoFsRmENEHA.624@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl
> JC [Fri, 7 May 2004 15:41:41 +1000]:
>> <hel@40th.com> wrote in message
>>> Can you copyright a painting? A photograph? A photo,
>>> okay, but you can't copyright the object of the photo,
>>> only the photo itself. You *can* go out and take a shot
>>> of the very same image, even using the original in your
>>> hand as a guide, and your photograph can look EXACTLY
>>> the same, but it's yours, free and clear. So, you have
>>> an icon you like? Take it in view and make your own
>>> bitmap punches of it, and it's yours.
>>
>>
>> I very much doubt that this is the law. Copying an icon from the
>> screen would seem to be no different from photocopying a book, which
>> does breach copyright.
>
> You didn't read that very closely. Or do you want to extend
> your argument that taking a picture that exactly duplicates
> a copyrighted photograph is somehow ... illegal? How do you
> stand without any legs? ahah


I read it very closely. The nature analogy doesn't hold and, as Aandi points
out, probably doesn't help you even if it did.


--
John Carson
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2. Don't reply to email address (post here instead)

 

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"TVR Fan" <nosuch@address.com> wrote in message
news:eA3sRT3MEHA.2704@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Does anyone know if there are any copyright issues with using icons from
> shell32.dll in my own application? Can I just grab them with an icon
> extractor and do what I like with them without worrying about legal
issues?

http://www.microsoft.com/permission/copyrgt/cop-img.htm#Icons

 

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"Homer J. Simpson" <root@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:OF248yZPEHA.1620@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/permission/copyrgt/cop-img.htm#Icons

Well that's definitive then, thanks.

Our arty people complained that my munged icons looked too much like
Microsoft ones anyway and they are working on some of our own.

--- Al.