use of the clan crest and tartan on on-line website

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Specifically regarding copyright law, the tartan design (in this case, as an older, traditional tartan) would be considered "public domain," and the crest, as well, so long as it was the "clansman" badge with the strap & buckle, as only the chief may display the crest along without the belt.

HOWEVER, specific renditions of the above can and likely ARE copyright protected designs. Unless you can find a drawing of the clan crest from a very old source that would be out of copyright, you'd best either draw your own (if you have that kind of talent) or hire an artist to draw a rendition for you. Because any specific rendition of the crest would be copyright whomever drew it or commissioned the drawing.

Same is true of the tartan. If I were to paint a picture of the tartan design, or even take a photograph of the tartan cloth, that picture would belong to me, even though the tartan design itself is public domain.

So, my advice would be to make sure you use your own images of whatever you decide to use on the site.

[Chas]

Hello Gregor,

Here is a copyright free rendition of the clan crest badge.



Here is the copyright statement:

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:

You are free:

• to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
• to remix – to adapt the work

Under the following conditions:

• attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
• share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

Celtus @ english wikipedia

Regards

Chas

[Dale Seago]

Same is true of the tartan. If I were to paint a picture of the tartan design, or even take a photograph of the tartan cloth, that picture would belong to me, even though the tartan design itself is public domain.

That's how I did it. Don't use the clan crest, but I do use "my" clan tartan design as background on my website. It actually is a photograph I took of the plaid I'm wearing as a feileadh mor here.