I have a question about intellectual property (rule 15). I know I can't rip something out of a game and put it in my game. What if I see something at the park that I want in my game (say a pony) and I take a picture of it and cut it out and paste it in my game. Is that stealing someones property? What about something in a hotel, store or public place? I know pictures of people I need permission of. Brain21

In the US, it varies a bit by state but the general rule of thumb is that it depends where the picture was taken. If it is a public place (such as a park owned by the city/state), then generally speaking it's alright to use. If the picture is in any way on private property, or includes items that violate an individual's perceived right to privacy (for example, shooting from public property through a window, inside a public building in an area marked 'private', or in a public office with a door!) then you need permission. Things are muddied further by the fact that we own our own likeness - so if you use photographs of people, you need a release waiver from the individuals... except for public places, generally outdoors. Oh, and make sure that anyone you photograph is clothed and isn't objecting to your photography - both of those can run afoul of local privacy regulations.

You can take a relatively generic picture, and use elements of it to form something else. For example, take a picture of a pony and use it as reference material for skinning a virtual 3D pony. You *might* run afoul of 'derived work' rules, but it's very unlikely for something as generic as a farm animal. You *would* run into issues if you snapped a picture of (insert celebrity here) in the park and decided to use his/her likeness.

Finally, for a pony in the park - if its a pretty normal pony (i.e. hard to tell whose pony it is), isn't marked in some way (I'm really not sure how you label ownership on a pony - on a dog, a collar might be a giveaway) and you crop out the background, it's very unlikely anybody would care.

All in all, it's a legal mess. (I'm not a lawyer, but I do have a law degree. This isn't legal advice - attorneys can legally give that, I can't!)

Edit: Just noticed that you are in Canada. I know Canadian copyright law is similar to the law here (as is UK law; my degree is from the UK), but it's probably not exactly the same. Sorry to add further confusion!

Ok, what about an object, say a lamp in a hotel lobby or a big garbage bin in the back of a walmart (no walmart sign in pic). Maybe if its a designer lamp for that chain of hotels, someone would care?? Maybe not. I don't think I'll be skinning anything, but maybe cut/pasting pieces of taken pictures into the game.

I'll read that site posted above too.

Brain21.

Sounds good. that's what I'll do.