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  KDE on Television Show 24
KDE Success Story Posted by Jonathan Riddell on Friday 31/Oct/2003, @08:09
from the 24h-to-3.2beta dept.
The third series of television show 24 started in the US last week. In the aim to improve security, The Counter Terrorist Unit seem to have switched operating system from MacOS to KDE. Interestingly they used a 3-year-old KDE 1.x desktop. These older icons are made available under a public domain licence. If a GPL'd set of icons had been used, would we now be legally able to modify, sell and distribute the episode under the terms of the GPL over the internet?


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More KDE stars?
by Eric Laffoon on Friday 31/Oct/2003, @10:14
For a second I thought this was going to be about Andras Mantia being on a Hungarian Linux users show with about 100,000 viewers. I guess he's keeping his new TV star status a secret though. ;-)

This is really fun seeing KDE showing up on TV shows. It means that the guys behind the show think it's cool... and what people in Hollywood think is cool often becomes very trendy everywhere. Of course the funny thing is that when KDE isn't trendy any more people will be saying "So what? Everybody uses KDE."

So Mac OS wasn't zooty enough... and we still have several more versions of KDE for them to try before they catch up. ;-)
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nice
by ac on Friday 31/Oct/2003, @10:27
Nice catch! I wouldn't mind seeing a screenshot of Alias with KDE in it too... Btw the link to the page on http://jriddell.org/ itself is wrong.
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What about Alias...
by Tom on Friday 31/Oct/2003, @22:09
I've seen KDE ( 2.x ? ) been used in Alias quite a few times.
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I think it is done with Macromedia Director
by Calle on Saturday 01/Nov/2003, @03:50
I think all these Operating Systems are made with Macromedia Director. There are no problems intrgrating dynamic looking Programms and what so ever. And Director ist muche more usefull than any Powerpoint Presentation.
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Fair Use
by Burrhus on Saturday 01/Nov/2003, @07:30
> If a GPL'd set of icons had been used, would we now be
> legally able to modify, sell and distribute the episode
> under the terms of the GPL over the internet?

I doubt it. If what you suggest were true, movies would violate copyright every time they show anything (a can of Pepsi, a screenshot of Windows, a newspaper, etc.). That would be ridiculous. Such a display would fall under fair use.
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O, gosh
by Lucas on Saturday 01/Nov/2003, @08:03
> I doubt it. If what you suggest were true, movies would violate copyright every > time they show anything (a can of Pepsi, a screenshot of Windows, a newspaper, > > etc.). That would be ridiculous. Such a display would fall under fair use.

Oh good Lord. IT'S A JOKE! Can't you realize that???????????
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I alway wonderd
by Calle on Saturday 01/Nov/2003, @10:53
I heard very often that the Movie Industry in the US are using Linux on the Desktop for there Special Efects Producktions. 3D and Compositing are big omn Linux.
Now I Wonder wich Desktop the Industry is in favour. It it Gnome because they are Red Hat Users, or it it KDE because... Well what ever. This Screenshot maks me belive it is KDE.
But maybe it is because of some other reason, and of course 24 is a TV Produktion.
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oh please
by RMS on Saturday 01/Nov/2003, @21:30
"If a GPL'd set of icons had been used, would we now be legally able to modify, sell and distribute the episode under the terms of the GPL over the internet?"

Yeah, let's scare more people about using GPL-licensed products. The GPL seems more like a disease now than a copyright license.
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If a GPL licence...
by John Allsup on Sunday 02/Nov/2003, @11:25
IANAL, but no. In much the same way that music playing in a bar in the background in a news report doesn't require the news station to have the permission of the copyright holder. Most certainly the episode wouldn't be considered a derivative work of the icons in the way that a modifided version of a GPL'd program is derivative.
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GPL'd icons
by Jonathan Bryce on Sunday 02/Nov/2003, @12:40
I doubt very much that the GPL would force itself on the episode. It is almost certainly covered by fair use provisions.
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I don't understand...
by Inorog on Sunday 02/Nov/2003, @15:08
... the sense of Jonathan's question about using the GPL icons? Are the KDE artists the least bit interested in producing an alternative 24 episode? Do we really need to alienate (even more than what proprietary proponents manage to) people from actually using and enjoying free software? As long as KDE's brand is used in actually advertising manners, do we care? OK, having a big power's military make a film about extremists using Linux/KDE on their desktops while planning the killing of thousands of innocents would be offensive and we would then try to do something. But even then, why should we be ourselves licensing extremists?
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KDE on 24
by Matt on Monday 03/Nov/2003, @13:32
Only some of the computers have switched. Jack is till using a Powerbook.
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Josh 2.0
by Scott on Monday 03/Nov/2003, @14:51
I think i saw KDE runing on that new upn show, Jake 2.0, but i wasnt on the screen long enough for me to tell for sure, so it could have been fake like everything else in hollywood. At least they are trying to be more accurate in computer interface representations and have moved on from the cheesy interfaces like what we saw in Hackers. Im mean really??? when was the last time you "flew" through your file system to find a file???
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Not only an asinine thing, but a dangerous thing..
by Rupert Nelson on Monday 03/Nov/2003, @15:31
...to say. Why would you even suggest the completely unrealistic possibility that by using GPL'd ICONS on a television show that that particular show would then be under the GPL? It's absurd and DANGEROUS.

A large number of people would like to see Open Source and GPL'd software used in more places. So, I dunno, let's make blanket statements that put fear of GPL and OSS into people that might use them... Yeah, that will work.

As I understand, by putting those ICONS under the GPL, the icons themselves could be used as bases for NEW icons and that those NEW ICONS would have to be released under the GPL. It says nothing of displaying those images through two mediums for the purpose of showing functionality.

All they did was display an image of something. If the image of the thing they showed was under GPL it wouldn't matter. You aren't seeing the actual image FILEs of the Icons, just the result of the Image Files for the Icons. There is a difference, it's not minute. You cannot take an icon that is displayed on the desktop screen of a computer within a movie/film/television show and have that icon instantly available on your desktop. It's not possible.
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Copyrighted artwork in films
by Jonathan Riddell on Monday 03/Nov/2003, @16:17
Copyright issues with artwork in films is not unknown. See http://the-future-of-ideas.com/excerpts/index.shtml

--
The film Twelve Monkeys was stopped by a court twenty-eight days after its release because an artist claimed a chair in the movie resembled a sketch of a piece of furniture that he had designed. The movie Batman Forever was threatened because the Batmobile drove through an allegedly copyrighted courtyard and the original architect demanded money before the film could be released. In 1998, a judge stopped the release of The Devil’s Advocate for two days because a sculptor claimed his art was used in the background.
--

Music in the background during live broadcasts has explicit exceptions under UK laws but otherwise the music must be licenced.

The rights and wrongs of it can be argued forever, and of course the US has fair use exceptions as has been said.
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Rationale for switching KDE versus MacOS?
by Hoju Han on Monday 03/Nov/2003, @18:16
To improve security? How often has MacOS (any version) been hacked relative to Linux?

And how is KDE comparable to MacOS (any version); the latter is a full operating system,
KDE is little more than a desktop (plus some other appendages).
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KDE on 24
by no one on Monday 03/Nov/2003, @19:46
Just to clarify, the screen shot posted was actually in the prison from the beginning of the episode, most of CTU is still using Macs as far as I can tell.
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KDE is an OS now?
by nonamenobody on Wednesday 05/Nov/2003, @15:55
I am sure someone must have posted this, however I can't find it.

>> The Counter Terrorist Unit seem to have switched operating system from MacOS to KDE

Since when was KDE considered an operating system?
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