Re: [gNewSense-art] Re-Licensing Artwork.

[al3xu5 / dotcommon]

Il giorno venerdì 25/05/2012 20:41:20 CEST
"r. siddharth" <address@hidden> ha scritto:

> The Artwork present in the gNewSense web-site is going to be re-licensed 
> to GNU Free Documentation License(GFDL), as it has been learned lately 
> that the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License and GFDL 
> are incompatible[1]. But before we can re-license the Artwork, it is 
> required to get the approval of all contributors of the Artwork that is 
> part of the gNewSense web-site.
> 
> If you have contributed to the Artwork present in the gNewSense 
> web-site, please intimate us about your approval/disapproval of the 
> re-license of the Artwork to GFDL by sending a reply to this list. We'd 
> appreciate if you provide us with your profile name (with which you 
> uploaded your artwork to the gNewSense web-site) and the links to your 
> Artwork in your reply.


profile name: alexus [1]
artwork: SLiM gNewSense theme [2]

I *DISAPPROVE* relicensing the artwork to GFDL.


Reasons below.

- As well stated in the GFDL preamble [3], it has been designed "in order to use
  it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free
  documentation" and FSF recommend it "principally for works whose purpose is
  instruction or reference". 
  
  So using GFDL for artwork is NOT the right choice, especially if it is of
  artwork used in a operating system (logos, wallpapers, themes, icons, buttons
  etc.).

- Maybe there is a misunderstanding regarding what Brett Smith said [3][4]: 
  "The GFDL wants to cover everything.  If you want it to cover everything
  *minus* some specific part, you're working against the license's design
  goals, and you'd need to provide an additional permission to make it happen.
  And all this is true for CC BY-SA, too."
  "You have three main options: have everything be under the GFDL, have
  everything be under CC BY-SA, or keep your current dichotomy but make sure
  all contributors provide extra permission for >>>wiki pages and artwork to
  be combined<<< the way you currently lay out."
  
  I think "everything" here should be meant as "any thing contained in the
  GNS's website pages" (also take a look at the text between >>> <<<), while
  excluding any other artwork used with the operating system (such as logos,
  wallpapers, themes, icons, buttons etc.).

- Options (a) 'relicensing the artwork to GFDL' and (b) 'ask all contributors
  to provide extra permission for wiki pages and artwork to be combined', both
  require asking contributors to explicity release extra permission... 
  
  So, why ask for (a), which moreover lead to a inappropriate license for
  artwork used with the operating system? Better ask for (b)!

- The GNS website says in the footer: "All documentation is available under the
  terms of the GFDL with no invariant sections. Artwork is Free Cultural Work
  and is available under the terms of the cc-by-sa license."
  
  This should imply contributors have already realesed their textual works
  under the GFDL and their artistic works under the CC BY-SA. 
  So choosing (b) probably DO NOT really require asking contributors to
  explicity release any extra permission for *ALL* the artwork related with
  GNS: maybe the extra permission is needed only for the images attached to the
  webpages...

  More, the extra permission required to combine GFDL and CC BY-SA *in the
  web pages*, could be inserted in the footer in order to "automatically"
  solve the license issue for any new contribution in the future.

- Using the GFDL for artwork may lead to more license issues than using the CC
  BY-SA (for example when you want to reuse the artwork in a non-GDFL
  context...)


For all these reasons I suggest:

- to *keep* the CC BY-SA license for all the artwork related with the operating
  system (logos, wallpapers, themes, icons, buttons etc.)

- to license GNS's web pages under GFDL for texts and CC BY-SA for artwork
  (images, videos etc.) inserted into the pages themselves (requesting extra
  permissions just for these artworks, and updating the footer to
  automatically obtain the permission to combine GFDL and CC BY-SA for any new
  contribution in the future)

- alternatively, to license GNS's web pages under GFDL both for texts and
  artwork (images, videos etc.) inserted into the pages themselves (requesting
  extra permissions just for these artworks).


Regards


[1] http://www.gnewsense.org/alexus
[2] 
http://www.gnewsense.org/ArtworkProjects/SlimGnewsense#About_the_SlimGnewsense_theme
[3] www.gnewsense.org/RelicensingArtwork 
[4] http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnewsense-dev/2012-05/msg00000.html


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