Re: gnome-themes and licensing

[Alan Cox <alan lxorguk ukuu org uk>]

On Sad, 2006-04-15 at 15:42 +0100, Thomas Wood wrote:
> engines where separated out into gtk-engines some while back. The only 
> type of files found in gtk-engines should now be images and text files. 
> The only binary data installed by gnome-themes would be any PNG images.

That helps a lot

> So the problem still is that many artists no longer want to use the GPL, 
> and the FDL isn't ideal for artwork either. So are we stuck with using 
> the GPL for artwork to avoid any problems? If it was clear what license 
> each theme or file in the gnome-themes module was under, would this 
> prevent any problems distributors might have?

Clearly, since the vendors can just delete them. Having a separate
gnome-themes-creativecommons etc might be even simpler (I suspect the
FSF would like 'gnome-themes-nonfree' for the name ;) )

It is also of course possible for a creative commons artwork to be
placed by its author under both the GPL (or LGPL) and a creative commons
license if the GPL is unsuitable/too restrictive for the goals of the
artists.

The creative commons one seems less problematic anyway (at least for
sharealike without other restrictions) as it appears the theme can still
be used by all software.

Alan