KDE artwork : reuse of icons under GPL-2 ?

[Christophe Boccheciampe]

Hi, and happy new year :)

I would like to (slightly) modify and reuse some icons from various KDE packages (mostly "crystalsvg", "hicolor" and "oxygen"
icons, provided by kdebase-data or kdeartwork-iconthemes from Gentoo) in some applications. Some of these packages - and icons -
are under GPL-2 license (right ?).

I've read that using some work under GPL-2 implies the entire new application to be under GPL. The problem is, I _have_ to use
another license for our apps (CeCILL-B, a french license for education :
http://www.cecill.info/licences/Licence_CeCILL-B_V1-en.html).

What is the best solution ?
- to use only LGPL*-only icons ? (time consuming, but I guess it would be ok)

- to ask the permission to include all these icons in our package under our own license ? Who should I ask that to when I'm not
sure about the designers of each icons theme (oxygen and crystalsvg are pretty obvious, but what about 'slick', 'hicolor', ...
ones ?)

- to build a separate package under GPL-2 including these icons, then ask users to download both packages to "rebuild" the
application ?


I've read many posts and docs about licensing, but I still don't have a clear answer.

Thanks for your help !


Regards,

--
Christophe
_______________________________________________
Kde-licensing mailing list
Kde-licensing@...
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-licensing

[Rex Dieter]

Christophe Boccheciampe wrote:

> I've read that using some work under GPL-2 implies the entire new application to be under GPL. The problem is, I _have_ to use
> another license for our apps (CeCILL-B, a french license for education :
> http://www.cecill.info/licences/Licence_CeCILL-B_V1-en.html).

According to http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/ ,
"The CeCILL is a free software license, explicitly compatible with the
GNU GPL."

-- Rex
_______________________________________________
Kde-licensing mailing list
Kde-licensing@...
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-licensing

On Thu, Jan 08, 2009 at 01:01:03PM +0100, Christophe Boccheciampe wrote:
>
> Hi, and happy new year :)
>
> I would like to (slightly) modify and reuse some icons from various KDE packages (mostly "crystalsvg", "hicolor" and "oxygen"
> icons, provided by kdebase-data or kdeartwork-iconthemes from Gentoo) in some applications. Some of these packages - and icons -
> are under GPL-2 license (right ?).

crystalsvg are GPL 2, oxygen icons are GPL 3.

> I've read that using some work under GPL-2 implies the entire new application to be under GPL.

This is only the case if you embed the image in your application, for
example using a Qt resource file.  In KDE we just load the file at
runtime so the application's licence is unaffected by the artwork.

Jonathan
_______________________________________________
Kde-licensing mailing list
Kde-licensing@...
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-licensing

[Christophe Boccheciampe]

Thanks for your answers.


Jonathan Riddell a écrit :
> crystalsvg are GPL 2, oxygen icons are GPL 3.

According to the devs, Oxygen icons are now under LGPL-2 (their website is out of date). The CrystalSVG website
(http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/?action=license) says LGPL too, but the GPL licence is then mentionned. Lets say it is LGPL :)

> This is only the case if you embed the image in your application, for
> example using a Qt resource file.  In KDE we just load the file at
> runtime so the application's licence is unaffected by the artwork.

Since my application also loads the icons (it is a web-interface), I presume it is ok too. If it's not, just let me know.


Rex Dieter a écrit :
> According to http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/ ,
> "The CeCILL is a free software license, explicitly compatible with the
> GNU GPL."

Yes it is compatible, I've been confused by this ( http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLCommercially ) :

---------------
** If I use a piece of software that has been obtained under the GNU GPL, am I allowed to modify the original code into a new
program, then distribute and sell that new program commercially? **
=> You are allowed to sell copies of the modified program commercially, but only under the terms of the GNU GPL.
---------------

The CeCILL licence is not a commercial one, but using it means my code won't by released "under the terms of the GNU GPL" like
the text says, that's why I asked :)


C.B.

_______________________________________________
Kde-licensing mailing list
Kde-licensing@...
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-licensing