Are github identicons under copyright protection?

[thisistheRSCR]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Profile

Body

I was wondering are these generated identicons(like this https://github.com/identicons/thisistheRSCR.png
) that github gives you if you don't provide profile picture under copyright protection? If so, how are they licensed?

[matteogradinaru]

Hello,

No, those default GitHub identicons aren't protected by copyright. From what I've read, here's basically how it works:

• For something to be copyrighted, an actual human usually has to put some creative effort into it. Since these identicons are just spit out by a computer algorithm based on your username, there's no human artist involved at all.
• Even if someone did sit down and draw it by hand, copyright laws don't really cover super basic geometric shapes and color blocks. Underneath it all, an identicon is literally just a tiny 5x5 pixel grid that gets mirrored and scaled up.
• Because a computer made it and it's just basic math geometry, it pretty much just falls into the public domain by default.

How they are made: https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/identicons/
Human Authorship Requirement (section 306): https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/chap300/ch300-copyrightable-authorship.pdf

[thisistheRSCR]

thanks for your answer!

[matteogradinaru]

Glad to know my logic actually held up. Appreciate the extra context on the ToS stuff too