Hi.
>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?
I think this would a copyright violation as long as you
immitate an existing copyrighted work to create another
without permission. Similarly, for example, if you
draw a painting which looks like someone else's,
and it is not a coincident but a result of an influence,
it could be a violation. Degree of similarity matters,
but in this case, we are talking about exact reproduction.
>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?
Converting a file into different format, or taking a
picture of, say, copyrighted painting, copying a text
from one format to another (from PDF to RTF), are
usually considered reproduction, not derivative works. And
rights to reproduce, as well as to create derivative works
are exclusively held by authors or other copyright holders.
Finally, I have not checked if flags are copyrighted, and
who are the copyright holders. Quite a few flags exist since
long before, so they might be in the public domain
already. As you know, copyright protection expires. I think
investigating that is a shorter way to get copyright free flags.
I also wonder if all flags are copyrightable. Some flags are
very simple, so I am not sure if they are copyrightable at
all. If a country has a simple blue recutangular flag
with 3:2 proportion, is that recutangular copyrightable? I
don't think so. What if there is a flag with two colors -
a recutangular and a circle in it? I don't know.
Well, I know only Japanese and American copyright laws,
and I am not a lawyer, so I could be wrong.
Tomos