Who owns old icons?

[Richard Gaskin]

In spite of any statements from Apple Europe, the last official public 
statement from any authorized representative from Apple's heaquarters in 
  Cupertino was:

   "There have been some rumors about us canceling HyperCard,
    which are totally bu||sh*t."
    - Steve Jobs, October 1998, CAUSE Conference

You can enjoy an audio clip of that here: <http://www.ihug.org/>
AFAIK, no public statement to the contrary has ever been issued from 
Apple's main office.

But no matter how much fun we may have with Jobs' quote, the current 
status of a product's availability has no bearing at all on its 
copyright protection.

Before I continue, California state law requires me to include this 
disclaimer:  "I am not an attorney.  If you need an attorney you should 
consult the services of a qualified professional in your area."

With that out of the way, here's the dope:

    Works created on or after January 1, 1978

    The following rules apply to published and unpublished works:

     * For one author, the work is copyright-protected for the life
       of the author plus 70 years.

     * For joint authors, the work is protected for the life of the
       surviving author plus 70 years.

     * For works made for hire, the work is protected for 95 years
       from the first publication or 120 years from the date of its
       creation, whichever is less.

<http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/pg/2/objectId/D0C278CD-7D19-4EAD-B5E2124009D20220/catId/2EB060FE-5A4B-4D81-883B0E540CC4CB1E/310/276/136/CHK/>

To the best of my knowledge, under both US law and the Berne Convention 
(which now has 163 signing nations) copyright is granted to the creator 
of a work regardless whether the work is ever even published at all, and 
remains in effect similarly without regard for continued publication or 
any public availability of any kind.

You can create an image, sell it for one day, and then discontinue sales 
forever after and your copyright on any copies of that image you sold 
that day will still remain in effect for as long as you live plus 70 years.

In brief, the creator of a work defines how the work is used.  If you 
don't like the terms granted by the creator your only legal options are 
to wait a very long time, or simply to create your own original work and 
define its terms however you like.

With HyperCard this would seem a minor issue, since in addition to being 
owned by someone else its icons are low-res, 1-bit, and in general 
rather dated.  In the 12 years since HyperCard was last updated the rest 
of the world has continued to move forward, and today you can find 
thousands of free full-color icons all over the web:

<http://images.google.com/images?q=free+icons>

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
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