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OK...I've poured over the forums and haven't found a discussion on this (that I could discern...), and if I've missed it, please point me in the right direction.  Since it is largely a philosophical way of looking at things, here's my question:

Who owns the fractal image produced by a software package?  For example, when you produce a 36x24" poster from [place favorite commercial fractal software here], is selling that image in violation of the license agreement included with the software?

I ask because my personal opinion is that because of the individual touches that go into producing a fractal image, it's owned by the person generating the image, regardless of the software producing it.  By individual touches I mean palette tweaking, formula doinking, etc.  The formula involved is common knowledge and not considered anyone's intellectual property, as far as I can tell.  I know that the source code of the project, in a closed source app, is held by the author/company.  I guess my secondary reason for asking comes from recent inclusions by Sun/Oracle in their EULA for MySQL, as an example, that basically stated that all data once stored within the database becomes the property of Oracle and "licensed" to the user for use.  (Please don't make me read the EULA, again, to quote the exact portions...it was painful enough the first time.)

I find the software as a tool.  As a programmer by trade, I don't expect anyone's PDF catalogs created using my software to become "mine."  I don't think the house created by a particular saw becomes the property of Black and Decker, nor the same house, if built by commercially available plans, would become the house plan producing company's house, and violating some legal clause if the house is then sold on the open market. 

So, is it just assumed in the community that the images you have produced are yours?  If this is the case, is this a philosophy shared by the commercial software developers?  I guess, practically, it would also be hard to prove which software generated which image, unless it's got something embedded in the image, which, to me, would infer assumed ownership.

Hopefully, I'm making sense.  If not... <shrugs> 

Peace,

Phil

Is there any particular software you are talking about?  If so which one(s)?  Have you read any agreements that said this on any of these fractal rendering programs?  Most that I use are free, open-source, and or generated by me.  I'm sure Photoshop does not take ownership of any images made using it.

I would be curious if any fractal software has this EULA?  I know some "social networks" want free use of any data posted on their sites,  I wonder if deviantArt has this?

Gerally, Yes.

You own the rights to what you create with the software.

Not always though.  Preset examples, for example, belong to the creator.  You should need to vary them somewhat to claim them as yours.

More later.  Posting from my employment!

Copyright...a hot topic recently on orbittrap.ca (http://orbittrap.ca)  :police:

That makes sense.  As a photographer (and one who has seen some of his images pop up on a couple schlock calendar sites w/o permission...ugh!!  what a PITA to take care of...), I know that if you do an image backup and send the DVD(s) to the library of congress, they're kept on file as your copyrighted (copywritten?) works.  It's a nominal fee ($20/submission -- meaning incident of submission, not individual file) compared to sales loss or other legal stinkitude. 

Would that work with your generated fractal images?  In reading the overviews of copyright law, as each individual produces their own works, they are theirs, so it might be wise, should they ever want to profit from these images.  There are reasons we grind the CPUs for 36 hours to produce a 10Kx7.8K image, other than just academic curiosity, perchance. 

As for specific programs, the only commercial packages I use are UltraFractal and Fractal eXtreme.  I have *not* read the EULAs, as they were download purchases and the only end-user agreements I encountered were "I am going to pay for this and this is what I'm paying for (the software)" type of thing without much specifically, I don't think, addressing images and output.  Unfortunately, the google search for "UltraFractal EULA" brought up a slew of torrent/warez sites and a couple of thinly-veiled porn gateways... :hmh:  I'd have to dig out the PDF of their manual, I suppose.  Although, it sounds like, for the most part, images are properties of the artist.