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Commercial Use?

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Commercial Use? moonchaser 14 Jun 05:40
  Commercial Use? Andrew Gaffney 14 Jun 05:46
   Commercial Use? Andrea Sozzi 14 Jun 09:19
  Commercial Use? Carol Spears 14 Jun 06:06
  Commercial Use? Dave Neary 14 Jun 09:25
moonchaser
2004-06-14 05:40:18 UTC (almost 20 years ago)

Commercial Use?

I'm going to sample the Gimp software later, but I'm wondering... despite that the program is free (the source anyway), if I create or doctor images using the program which will be put up on a website, in my case, they are cartoon images on a comic site, is it legal? The images themselves will not be sold - they are free. But, on the sites I will be selling merchandice. I just want to make sure I'm not running into legal or licencing issues using this software. Thank you for your time and reply.

--Moonchaser.

______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca

Andrew Gaffney
2004-06-14 05:46:50 UTC (almost 20 years ago)

Commercial Use?

moonchaser wrote:

I'm going to sample the Gimp software later, but I'm wondering... despite that the program is free (the source anyway), if I create or doctor images using the program which will be put up on a website, in my case, they are cartoon images on a comic site, is it legal? The images themselves will not be sold - they are free. But, on the sites I will be selling merchandice. I just want to make sure I'm not running into legal or licencing issues using this software. Thank you for your time and reply.

To start, I have no idea what I'm talking about, so you can probably ignore me.

The GIMP is licensed under the GPL. The GPL does not affect anything you create with the software. As long as the images you are working with aren't copyrighted by someone else, you are free to do with them as you please.

Carol Spears
2004-06-14 06:06:44 UTC (almost 20 years ago)

Commercial Use?

hi,
On Sun, Jun 13, 2004 at 11:40:18PM -0400, moonchaser wrote:

I'm going to sample the Gimp software later, but I'm wondering... despite that the program is free (the source anyway), if I create or doctor images using the program which will be put up on a website, in my case, they are cartoon images on a comic site, is it legal? The images themselves will not be sold - they are free. But, on the sites I will be selling merchandice. I just want to make sure I'm not running into legal or licencing issues using this software. Thank you for your time and reply.

these are two separate issues. it is like owning your own car. you do not have to ask permission to drive your car. this does not allow you the right to drive it anywhere you want however.

when the gimp developers are worried about licenses, they are worried about using copyrighted mathematical processes. one of these was the lz compression stuff. just an example.

you, a gimp user, needs to be mindful of what you use the gimp for. just because it is yours and free to have and keep does not mean that this allows you to violate artists wishes because you own it.

buying photoshop does not give you this priveledge either.

check to see what the comic artists says on his/her web site. they all have an opinion about what you can do with their artwork.

carol

Andrea Sozzi
2004-06-14 09:19:03 UTC (almost 20 years ago)

Commercial Use?

The GIMP is licensed under the GPL. The GPL does not affect anything you create
with the software.

Yes, the only exception are programs like bison (a C-code generator), who copy part of its source into the output. So you have to apply the software licence to its output. But it's a very peculiar case, and these applications, like Bison itself, are often released under less restricitive licences to allow people to use their output anyway.

The problem with the Gimp is that some image formats can be patented so you may still break some law, but gimp developers surely knows more about this issue so wait for their more authoritative answers.

Please note that these problems are not related to the commercial nature of your site. You have to be careful with image format patents even if you create no-profit sites for charities!

-- andrea http://www.g-cows.org


_____________

Dave Neary
2004-06-14 09:25:12 UTC (almost 20 years ago)

Commercial Use?

Hi,

Quoting moonchaser :

I just want to make sure I'm not running into legal or licencing issues using this software. Thank you for your time and reply.

None at all. The GIMP product is Free (with a big F) meaning that if you distribute a modified version of the GIMP, you must make your modifications available to your distribuees with no conditions applied. However, one of the key freedoms that comes with the GIMP is to use it for whatever you like.

Your worry is a little like worrying whether you can use emacs to edit commercial source code.

Cheers, Dave.