176x132x16 - Working on Apple-like Theme for iPod Nano

[Siku]

Hi!

Now that Rockbox officially supports album art, I decided to make a WPS that has the same feel that Apple's firmware has. All my work is based on Leonid Frolov's iPod_nano theme.

I modified the bitmaps a bit, so that the font used fits in. I also added some additional features:

• Support for album artist and disc number tag
• Changed volume scale from graphic to text-based decibel scale
• Information of ReplayGain's album gain values
• Support for album art

But there are few shortcomings. I would like to hear your opinions and suggestions of these ones:

• The font used is quite small and maybe even unreadable for some users
• Album art's border is hard-coded into bitmap, so 50x50 pixels is the only size that fits in the theme

I'm also concerned about the copyright issues. As I said above, this theme is only a modification of Leonid Frolov's theme and if I have understood correctly, he owns the copyright of the graphics. I noticed that there has been discussion about the theme copyright on this forum, but my knowledge of these things isn't sufficient. If someone has better understanding of this topic, I would like to have some advice.

Finally, here's a preview of the theme:


Any feedback is highly appreciated!

UPDATE: WPS is not going to be released due to copyright issues.

Regards,
Siku

[GodEater]

There used to be quite a few copies of the iPod theme around - but we removed all of them because we were worried about copyright issues.

[psycho_maniac]

when the new rockbox-themes.org site is up we can post any theme we want and not have to worry about copyright? I thought i read that some where, but correct me if im very wrong.

[pondlife]

You are very wrong.  We are very much concerned with respecting copyright.

(IANAL, but if the "iPod look WPS" could be regarded as copyright-infringing, then I'd think Picture Flow could be too. But I wouldn't think that the WPS could be.)

pondlife

[scorche]

Interface copyright is only recognized in a few countries (or maybe just the US), so we don't really worry about that.  The images are a different matter.

when the new rockbox-themes.org site is up we can post any theme we want and not have to worry about copyright? I thought i read that some where, but correct me if im very wrong.

You likely just misinterpreted what I said somewhere.  I said Rockbox will not have to worry about being responsible for hosting copyright violations as the new theme site will be under "safe-harbor".  To keep this status, we cannot reject or even look over submitted themes for potential violations.  If we receive notice of an infringing theme by an outside party (preferably the copyright holder), it will be removed/dealt with.  This does not mean that the WPS submitters shouldn't be worried about abiding by laws.  All this means is that they and they only are responsible for the copyright violations without getting us stuck in the middle for hosting them/facilitating infringement.

Just to make things perfectly clear:

Rockbox respects copyright and if we get notices of multiple violations from multiple themes from you, you will be banned from uploading

Things like this will be fleshed out a bit further when the new site is debuted and the rules will come into effect.

[crzyboyster]

I really do like the theme, but what I don't like at all is the font. Use the helvR10 font, it looks a lot better in the menus and the wps. Cleaner, ipod-inspired look.

[Siku]

Thank you all for the feedback!

This is exactly what I was worried about; the copyright issues. I wonder what exactly is the thing that could be considered as copyright infringement? Is it the graphics, the positioning on the screen, the font or is it the whole looks? And what pondlife said, why isn't PictureFlow infringing the copyright?

But the bottom line is: I'm not willing to release anything if there is even the slightest chance of copyright infringement.

Regards,
Siku

[AlexP]

As scorche says, very few places, maybe only the USA has interface copyrighting.  That is to say if you take inspiration from a layout but create all your own images etc, you are OK.  However, if you re-use images without the permission of the copyright owner, that is not OK.

Rockbox SVN is hosted in Sweden, so US laws do not cover it.  I, for instance, live in Europe, so US laws do not apply to me, the laws of the country I live in do.  However, if you are in the USA or another country that allows interface copyright, then it is up to you whether you wish to respect that law or not.  That being said, as scorche says, Rockbox does not worry about it.  What we take very seriously is copyright on images.  You CANNOT use those.  If you create your own (and this doesn't just mean drawing an exact copy), OK

Therefore, pictureflow is probably OK in most places - we haven't copied anything of Apple's directly, just taken inspiration from the idea and programmed our own version.  Think of the various media players (XMMS (I think) comes to mind) that boast of a "Winamp like interface".

And, very importantly, as with everyone here IANAL in any way, this is just my interpretation.

[Siku]

I see. I saw a few other themes that seem to use the same graphics (at least partly) as Leonid Frolov has used in his theme. I guess they have the permission to use the graphics. I couldn't find any contact information for Leonid Frolov from the wiki page, so I'm unable to ask for the permission. Thus I'm not going to release my theme. Thank you for the input.

Regards,
Siku

[Axio]

Good job !

I really like it, change the font and it will be awesome !

[Siku]

Hi again!

I decided to give this theme another shot and I re-did the graphics while trying to keep the original look'n feel of the iPod theme. I took some icons from the Tango icon set and modified them to fit my needs. The icon set is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license. Thus the WPS will be licenced under the same or similar license.

If I've understood corretly, the copyright issues of the graphics were the only bottleneck in the way of releasing the WPS, right?

I added some features to the WPS while I was at it:

• Eight level battery indicator with new colors
• Completely new playmode indicators
• The other graphics have also been remade, but they look pretty much like the 'old' ones

I would like to have some comments on the remaining copyright thing and on the new graphics, especially on the playmode icons.

Edit: I almost forgot to comment the font suggestions. I tried the helvR10 font, but I didn't like it at all, that's why the font is still the same. I need a font which is small enough, that all the information fits on the screen. So I'm still open to suggestions on the font side.

Merry Xmas to you all,
Siku