Re: Applying the GPL to Artwork

[Thomas Wood <thos gnome org>]

On Fri, 2008-04-25 at 01:24 -0500, Yevgen Muntyan wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> I have a problem with the following:
> 
> Thomas Wood wrote:
> ...
> 
> > Run Time Substitution
> > ---------------------
> > 
> > If the icon is not required to allow the application to function (i.e.
> > can be substituted at run time and is not distributed with the
> > application) then the license does not apply. For example, this means
> > that users would not be violating the GPL if a proprietary application
> > uses a GPL icon theme.
> > 
> > However, if a non-GPL application references an icon name from
> > gnome-icon-theme, this should be considered as linking (as described
> > above).
> 
> 
> The first and the second paragraphs are not mutually
> exclusive. I have this LGPL-ed application which has code
> like this:
> 
> create_named_icon (icon_theme, widget, size, pixel_size, GTK_STOCK_HOME,
>                                       "user-home", "gnome-fs-home", 
> "folder_home", NULL);
> 
> It will work without gnome icon theme, yet it references
> "gnome-fs-home" name. Am I violating GPL here?


I think Jakub tried to clear this up. Basically, I was trying to say if
your non-GPL application references an icon that is clearly from a GPL
theme without providing the icon itself, then this could be considered a
violation. I could argue that using any gnome-* icon name indicates a
reliance on the GNOME icon theme, which is GPL (almost all themes use
this as a fallback).

Does this make sense?

Regards,

Thomas