Copyright of console illustrations

"Andrea Pappacoda" <[email protected]> Sat, 30 Aug 2025 18:47:39 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi!

I'm currently packaging the melonDS console emulator (ITP bug #1050348), 
but I'm stuck. The emulator ships with two minimalist illustartions of 
a Nintendo DS Lite game console; these illustrations are derived from 
<https://www.dimensions.com/element/nintendo-ds-lite>, which have 
a non-free (non-commercial uses) license.

The derived illustrations, shipped with the emulator, are here: 
<https://salsa.debian.org/tachi/melonds/-/blob/793427e203df56edaa7f3046f92d7634998e091f/src/frontend/qt_sdl/InputConfig/resources/ds_open.svg>

My question is: are these illustrations copyrightable? To me, it seems 
that they do not meet the threshold of originality of copyright law, as 
they just report in SVG format a physical object. There's no 
originality.

I was thinking, in the debian/copyright file, of writing something like 
this:

    Files:     src/frontend/qt_sdl/InputConfig/resources/ds_back.svg
               src/frontend/qt_sdl/InputConfig/resources/ds_open.svg
    Copyright: 2021 melonDS team
    License:   public-domain
               The two illustrations are in the public domain as they do not 
               meet the threshold of originality required for copyright to 
               apply.
               .
               The images are based on a Dimensions.com illustration, 
               modified to add color, remove real-life dimensions text, and 
               smoothen edges.

Does this make sense to you? Let me know!

Bye :)