From kde-core-devel  Thu Jan 15 23:24:07 2004
From: Andreas Pour <pour () mieterra ! com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 23:24:07 +0000
To: kde-core-devel
Subject: Re: Everaldo keeping kde in lock -- was: K-ARTIST: Icons,
Message-Id: <40072117.DB571603 () mieterra ! com>
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=107420914305712

Dominique Devriese wrote:

[ ... ]
 
> > Section 3 doesn't really apply since a PNG icon is not in "object
> > code or executable form"
> 
> Ok, you may be right about this.
> 
> However, this still seems like a very risky interpretation for us
> non-lawyers to be making.  When a judge is given the task of
> interpreting what the licensor meant with the license, I can imagine
> him deciding that he probably would have meant the SVG as the
> "sources".

What I don't think is likely is that a judge will force someone to release the
SVG version GPL if they released only the PNG version GPL.  I don't think the
judge will read the license as forcing someone - who voluntarily used that
license to give something away for free - to release what they did not want to
release, never did release and do not want to release now.

And from my point of view I could not even imagine going to court trying to
force someone to do this, and even demanding it is IMHO going to far - ask
nicely and be appreciative if you get it :-) .

> All in all, I hope you agree that this is pretty unstable legal
> ground, and every effort should be made to make the icon's "sources"
> available.  IMHO, this is still a showstopper bug.

You mean shipping only the PNG icons?  I very much disagree with that, there are
far more risky things KDE already ships than something like this.

Even if found guilty by some extreme judge, so what?  We stop shipping the icons
then, that is the remedy under the GPL; and besides the only one who might be
entitled to damages (and probably even to sue) is Everaldo, and he is the one
that released the icons like that in the first place!

Ciao,

Dre