Re: Icons and GPL

Stefan Küng wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We've just received another request from a company
> (http://www.waterproof.fr) to user our overlay icons in their app to
> indicate the Subversion status.
>
> Since our icons are under the GPL as everything else, this won't be
> possible.
>
> I'd like to propose a license change for the icons. At least a change to
> the LGPL. That way any other application could use our icons, and
> provide a common "Subversion/TSVN" look-and-feel for the users.
>
> I suggest putting a file indicating the rules when/how those icons can
> be used in other apps in our icons folder:
>
> ======================
> The icons in here are not under the GPL but free to use under the
> following conditions:
> - you use those icons for either a Subversion client application, or an
> application with Subversion support (e.g. an IDE). You must not use
> these icons for functions/status/... which has nothing to do with
> Subversion.
> - you must mention somewhere that you got the icons from us, with a link
> to our website. This can be in an "About" box, or simply a textfile in
> the installation folder of your application.
> - if you provide additional icon sets besides those you use from us, you
> must give us permission to use your icon sets too. That means your icons
> will be included here in this folder, for us and others to use.
> ======================
>
> Comments?
> (Especially from those who actually created the icons) :)

Unless we re-open the TSVN license change can of worms again, I believe
we would need to dual license the icons. So they are included in the GPL
with the rest of TSVN, but are also available separately under a
different license.

AFAIR all the icons are by Lübbe with the exception of the subclipse set
from Mark Phippard, and the CVSClassic set from Jeoff Hines (Jeoff.Hines
at Rauland.com). You just need to get their permission as copyright
holders to add another license.

I have hacked up an OpenSSL license, which includes a few more clauses
that we should consider. It looks like legalese but IANAL so I haven't
any idea if it's right ;-) Do we need a disclaimer? Did anyone ever die
because of a misleading icon?

<license textfile>
The icons in these folders are available either under the terms
of the GNU Public License, or under the terms of the TortoiseSVN
Icon License below, unless the folder contains an alternative
license file.

====================================================================
Copyright (c) 2006 The TortoiseSVN Project. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use of these icons, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of these icons as part of a source or binary
    distribution must retain the above copyright notice and this
    list of conditions.

2. The icons may only be used for a Subversion client application,
    or for an application with Subversion support (e.g. an IDE).
    You may not use these icons for to represent actions which are
    not directly related to Subversion.

3. Software using these icons must provide an acknowledgement
    that the icons were derived from the TortoiseSVN project,
    with a link to the project website (tortoisesvn.tigris.org)
    in one or more of the following places:
    a) an "about" box.
    b) the product user manual.
    c) a textfile in the installation folder of the application.
    d) a contributors page on the product web page.

4. The name "TortoiseSVN" must not be used to endorse or
    promote products using these icons without prior written
    permission. For written permission, please contact
    dev@tortoisesvn.tigris.org.

5. If you provide additional icon sets besides those you use
    from us, you must give us permission to use your icon sets
    too.
====================================================================
</license textfile>

Clause 1 is important. Otherwise anyone receiving the app binary may
well get the icons without knowing there is a license, so they could
copy them without knowing that we have some conditions. Actually, there
is nothing to stop unrestricted use of the icons under the existing GPL
for any other GPL project, even if it is not subversion-related. Ho hum.
At least this gives a declaration of our intentions.

Note that we can't make the license apply to icon sets contributed under
clause 5, which is why there is that bit about alternative license
files. Licensing and acknowledgement gets very messy once you start out
on reciprocal rights. I would prefer to remove clause 5 and rely on
people contributing to the project under its existing terms.

Simon

-- 
        ___
   oo  // \\      "De Chelonian Mobile"
  (_,\/ \_/ \     TortoiseSVN
    \ \_/_\_/>    The coolest Interface to (Sub)Version Control
    /_/   \_\     http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@tortoisesvn.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@tortoisesvn.tigris.org