Re: None FLOSS license for a logo?

Ulrich Mueller <[email protected]> Tue, 27 Aug 2024 11:09:43 +0200

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.legal
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

>>>>> On Tue, 27 Aug 2024, c buhtz wrote:

> I am an upstream maintainer of a GPL-v2-or-later project.

> We plan to have our own logo and thinking about how to license this.
> It might come to the case that the logo file (e.g. logo.svg, logo.png,
> logo.ico) won't be licensed with an OSI accepted licence but with a
> more closed license. This is because we don't want to get this logo
> used in other contexts. The logo should be exclusive to the project. I
> am not sure how to achieve this in another way.

> To my understanding GNU/Linux Debian is quit strict when it comes to
> free software principles.
> Are there any rules or restrictions I need to consider when it comes
> to a situation like this?
> Is it even allowed to package such a non-OSI-licensed logo in a
> GNU/Linux Debian package?

> If you have another idea how we could achieve our goals please let me
> know.

Trying to achieve this with copyright alone will be awkward, because
copyright is the wrong tool for this. Instead, you may want to consider
registering a trademark for your logo. This would give you control
over its use, while at the same time it could be under a free
(copyright) license.

For example, the Gentoo logo has CC-BY-SA as its copyright license
while at the same time it is protected as a trademark with some usage
guidelines [1].

The downside is that registering a trademark requires some paperwork
and costs money. You'd also need a legal entity as the trademark
holder.

There was a nice introductory talk / case study about the subject at
this year's FOSDEM [2].

Ulrich

[1] https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/name-logo-guidelines.html
[2] https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-2595-figuring-out-trademark-policy-on-the-fly/

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