Help with clarification of license terms request

[jucm]

Hello,

I would like to ask if anyone could do a quick clarification of a small exception provided in a license.

The license is the following:

All graphics on this site are placed into the Public Domain, which means that you can do almost whatever you wish with it. You can put the clipart into your own drawings and documents without any affect on the copyright or license of your work.

Few Exceptions.
# Company logos and trademarks can be used under "fair use" policy. More info here.
# You may NOT use any component of our clipart or site content to produce what could be directly or indirectly considered a competitive venture against us.
# It's not necessary to provide a link back to this site, but it would be greatly appreciated.

What I would like to clarify, is the second exception. What exactly falls under this exception? I have tried to contact the webmaster of a site with the same question, but received no answer. Could anyone please give some examples when this exception might apply?


I would like to use one graphic file from this site, and put it on my site for a background. My site will offer my own personal graphic content for free, that is why I would like to clarify if that could be construed as to fall under the second exception.


Thank you!

 

[Some Random Guy]

You may NOT use any component of our clipart or site content to produce what could be directly or indirectly considered a competitive venture against us.

Based on the exact wording of their license, you would be in violation of item terms.

However, the "license" is worded poorly enough to make me think that the site owner does not understand US copyright and trademark law and that they may have trouble enforcing it.

If you place your copyrighted content into the Public Domain, that means that anyone can use it freely with no restrictions whatsoever. So a license explaining the terms under which Public Domain content can be used is worthless.

Now, if they really meant to say that the clipart was freely available to use but came with certain restrictions, they should say instead that they retain the copyright on the images, but are licensing it with a Creative Commons or similar license.

But for one single image, I doubt any court would care to hear this case. If it makes you feel better, e-mail them and ask for specific permission to use the image as your site background.

 

[jucm]

Thank you very much for taking your time to explain this