Re: None FLOSS license for a logo?

* On 8/27/24 12:21, [email protected] wrote:
> The "original source" of the logo is an SVG file.
>   From that SVG we "generate" some png or ico files used as icons to
> display in a file manager or the application GUI.
> 
> Might it be a way that the author of the original source (SVG) logo give
> the project or persons (as members of the project) the exclusive right
> to use and modify that SVG file, create derived works (png/ico files)
> from it and publish them under our own license?

As always, IANAL, but my understanding is that licenses do not and can not 
restrict what an author can do with its own work. That is, the author of a work 
is always allowed to use, modify, distribute and even re-license it as he sees fit.

Licenses merely regulate how other entities may interact with the work.

To that extent, if your project was a legal entity (which sadly it does not seem 
to be), then you could make the project itself the (co-)author of the work and 
solve any issues along the lines of the question "How do I make sure that the 
project itself can still use and modify the logo without relying on one single 
person to do it?"

Honestly, your best bet is to just use the GPL v2+ license for the logo as you 
already do for the source code.


> It seems to me, without a trademark, we can not control for someone
> reusing the logo in a different context. We have to accept that this can
> happen.

Yes, copyright is not the right tool for what you want to do. Trademarks, on the 
other hand, would be, but it does not seem like you are able to handle that, so 
you will have to eventually settle on a compromise.

The best compromise is to just use the FOSS license you already use and accept 
the risk that some data might be misused. Frankly, though, something like this 
probably will not happen anyway.


Please, please, please, do not try to invent/create a proprietary license for 
the logo only. Not only will that fail to have the desired effect - think about 
things like distribution: if you do not want your work to be used in other 
software, you would have to disallow distribution of the work unless bundled 
with the rest of your project. That, however, would mean that you it must not be 
part of a source code repository from which files can be fetched individually - 
a huge pain to say the least, and certainly not practicable.


Now, keeping the original SVG file private and proprietary, while generating PNG 
and ICO files off that manually, which are then put into your software as icon 
files under a free software license likewise does not make too much sense to me. 
If the generated files are free software, they can rightfully be taken by a 
third party and for instance traced back into an SVG file, modified (or not 
modified) and incorporated in or redistributed with other software, which 
defeats what you wanted to achieve.


My parting words are: do not make the situation more complicated than it really 
is. It is highly unlikely that your logo will be abused, keep the complete work 
free and as an added bonus you will not have to worry about inclusion in any 
free software distribution.



Mihai

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