Usage of icons from GIMP
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.