The PMC receives requests, every couple of weeks, from book publishers for permission to use OpenOffice screenshots in a book. Most often they are asking to use a specific screenshot from the website that they have identified, such as:
http://www.openoffice.org/product/pix/writer-big.png Generally, Apache permits the use of product screenshots in books, per the trademark policy here: http://www.apache.org/foundation/marks/faq/#insidebook However, that only covers the trademark. There is another rights owner to consider, the author of the document included in the screenshot, including any text, graphics, images, etc., displayed. Of course, the book publisher can avoid that issue by making their own screenshots. But that is extra work. Generally they are trying to clear permissions for dozens or hundreds of images. The more difficult we make it, the less likely they are use it. Since this is free publicity for us, we should try to make it easy for them to use. Another issue is that our posted screenshots are quite old. They don't reflect the new Apache branding. Here's how we can do better: 1) Create a set of "demo" documents that showcase the capabilities of OpenOffice. Use either public-domain text (Charles Dickens, for examples) or Loren Ipsum, or original text contributed to the project under ALv2 by the original authors. We want documents, for all of our applications. that look good, and are clearly under ALv2. Multilingual text would be ideal, or separate documents for different languages. (We do get requests from book publishers in many countries, so having a native-language screenshot is ideal) 2) Create screenshots for each document, on each platform Do it with AOO 3.4.1 for now. But plan on repeating with each major new release. Agree on screen resolutions, color depth, and image formats, so we have uniformity. 3) Host the screenshots online, along with text that explains their purpose and permissions. What do we think? I can help with the webpage and with screen shots on Windows. But I'll need help assembling a set of showcase demo files. Note: aside from book publishers, this will also be useful for journalists who want a screenshot for an article. -Rob --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
