On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 14:25:07 +0100 "Thor Harald Johansen" wrote:

Hello,

I'm writing a painting program in Java for digital artists with network functionality and I'm borrowing icons from GTK+ and GIMP in my GUI. It's looking great! :-) Here's a screenshot:

http://thor.artgrounds.com/home.php?action=view&id=4157

I have a potential problem coming up, though. I might not release the source code of this program. As I understand it, for the icons borrowed from GTK+ this poses no problem, because of its LGPL licensing. GIMP, however, is licensed under the GPL.

I'd like to know if the icons in GIMP are under the same license restrictions as the rest of the software. There's no such thing as source code for images. How can GPL be applied to the visual theme of a GUI?

I am not an expert in licences but here is how the GPL defines 'source code':

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it.

That has nothing to be with being a text file so my understanding is that images are also 'source code'.

For images coming from a LGPL project, the solution is simple. You project should be able to use them as long as they are not statically linked in the program.
Do not forget that you should NOT REMOVE THE LGPL licence. The safest way to do it is to distribute your program and the LGPL icons in 2 different packages.
The situation is more complex for the GPL because GPLed codes cannot be mixed with non-GPL codes even if their are not statically linked together.
The only escape I can see is that the non-GPL/GPL clause is not applicable to the data used by the application so that would be ok to reuse icons if they are considered as input data for you application.
But once again, you would have to distribute the icons under the GPL.

ps: I am not an official member of the GIMP team so the opinions expressed in that email are not official.

Hi,

"Thor Harald Johansen" writes:

I have a potential problem coming up, though. I might not release the source code of this program. As I understand it, for the icons borrowed from GTK+ this poses no problem, because of its LGPL licensing. GIMP, however, is licensed under the GPL.

The stock icons are in libgimpwidgets which is released as LGPL. But you are wrong to assume that being part of a library that is released under the terms of the LGPL would allow you include the icons in your closed-source software. The LGPL allows you to link your application against the library, it doesn't give you the right to reuse parts of the library. So I am afraid to tell you that you may not use any of these icons unless you do so by linking to the respective libraries and allowing your customers to relink the application to other versions of gtk+ and libgimpwidgets.

Sven