Freely-licensed media for custom software work?

[komatta]

Hi everyone, first time here...I had no idea this site even existed! Great resource. Anyway, I'm a graphic designer/illustrator and I lend a lot of my spare time to free/open source software projects.

I'd like to get an idea of how much (if any) Freely-licensed, church-related media exists. This would include illustrations, photography, fonts, music, video, and so on.

This sort of material could be used to support Free Software projects related to the church.

There's a TON of commercial work out there, but I don't want to work against copyright, especially because this could mean an instant red light for a freely-distributable software project.

So...any links, or ideas? Thanks for your help.

[The_Earl]

Hi everyone, first time here...I had no idea this site even existed! Great resource. Anyway, I'm a graphic designer/illustrator and I lend a lot of my spare time to free/open source software projects.

I'd like to get an idea of how much (if any) Freely-licensed, church-related media exists. This would include illustrations, photography, fonts, music, video, and so on.

This sort of material could be used to support Free Software projects related to the church.

There's a TON of commercial work out there, but I don't want to work against copyright, especially because this could mean an instant red light for a freely-distributable software project.

So...any links, or ideas? Thanks for your help.

The family search wiki (wiki.familysearch.org) is licensed under Creative Commons / Non-Commercial. They are also very interested in free / openly licensed church media, and are attempting to create a collection. Their interests are likely not directly in sync with yours, but you should poke in over there and ask around. They also have undertaken an initiative to get more of the church's media open for collaboration.

The Earl

[WelchTC]

Your best bet is to contact the intellectual property office of the Church to determine what is freely usable and what is not.

Phone: 1-801-240-3959 or 1-800-453-3860, ext. 2-3959
E-Mail: cor-intellectualproperty@ldschurch.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Tom

[komatta]

Thanks for those responses. I'll get in touch with the IP office and see what they have to say. I took a look at the wiki, but it wasn't immediately obvious where things might be...later maybe I'll use the "search" function

[The_Earl]

...I took a look at the wiki, but it wasn't immediately obvious where things might be...later maybe I'll use the "search" function

It is not the wiki you need to search, but the people on the wiki.

I do not think they have a library built yet, but I know they are working on one. You might find more information on getting church media opened.

Try the user group meetings:
https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Family ... up_meeting

Or the forum:
http://familysearchsupport.org/vbb/

Thanks
The Earl

[komatta]

Thanks for that information, The Earl. I also just got this from the IP email address provided by tomw:

We regret to inform you that we are not able to provide this information as you are requesting.
Best wishes and thank you for contacting our office.

Well, I'm pretty blown away if that's the best they can do.

I wonder if there are LDS artists or media producers out there who wouldn't object to their work being reproduced in a reasonable way. In my experience though, many LDS artists are pretty tight-fisted when it comes to copyright and reproduction. Also, this would cause some distribution trouble for open-source-type projects.