Using Microsoft or Adobe Clip Art in Public, Saleable Documents

[Charles]

I have decided to publish a book using publish-on-demand (essentially,
a modern form of self-publishing). I could pay the POD publisher to
design a custom cover, but I have a pretty good sense of aesthetics
and good design skills myself. However, I'm not an artist, so I need
to use some clip art.

The clip art I am using is that which is bundled with Adobe's
FrameMaker, some other clipart which comes with Microsoft Office. My
question is, is it legal to use this clipart as part of the design for
a book cover? I sure don't want to be paying royalties to Microsoft
or Adobe. Do I even need to credit them in the book?

Thanks in advance for all replies.
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Larry Linson]

You need to inquire of Microsoft and/or Adobe -- I don't recall seeing a
definitive statement about clip art in the End User License Agreement (but
there might be one). Much clip art that is floating around is in every
vendor's selection because it is public domain, but since those are not
identified as such, it is really difficult to determine. One thing I can
say, though, is that it is better to determine in advance rather than being
hit with a suit for copyright violation!