[advocacy-discuss] Solaris JDS icon usability

[Calum Benson]

On 21 Jul 2009, at 06:29, Alan Coopersmith wrote:

> samankaya at netscape.net wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'd like to know if I can use the Solaris 10/SXCE JDS icon for use in
>> themes on OpenSolaris???
>>
>> Basically I'm hacking my way through the desktop environment and  
>> thought
>> it would be really cool to manipulate the JDS icon to match the  
>> color of
>> my themes.
>>
>> What is everyone's verdict on this?? Is the JDS icon covered by a
>> specific license or is it free to use on anything belonging to  
>> Solaris??
>
> desktop-discuss would know the best about specific JDS files, but in
> general, only things in Solaris 10 specifically listed as Open Source
> are free to copy - Solaris 10 was not and is not a fully Open Source
> OS - while most of the desktop is open source, portions like  
> StarOffice
> were not, and most of the underlying OS is not.

Hmm... well, the Blueprint icons in Solaris 10 are licensed under the  
GPL v2, and the theme engine is licensed under the LGPL v2.

So while GPL probably isn't the most appropriate licence for  
distributing icons in an open source fashion these days, I doubt that  
Sun could or would prevent you from re-using or modifying the vast  
majority of the Blueprint icons as you wish, according to the usual  
terms of the GPL v2.

However, modification of any of those icons that include the Java logo  
(such as the Launch button or Java capplet icons) is probably more of  
a grey area, as Sun closely controls the use of its logos by third  
parties.  So potentially, any published modifications that the GPL  
might require would also require prior permission from Sun through its  
usual third-party logo programme channels... unless, by releasing  
those icons under the GPL in the first place, Sun has waived that  
requirement, intentionally or otherwise (which seems unlikely to me).

Usual disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and it probably needs one to  
clarify the situation here...

Cheeri,
Calum.

[1] <http://dlc.sun.com/osol/jds/downloads/extras/blueprint-0.9.20.tar.bz2 
 >

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum.benson at sun.com            OpenSolaris Desktop Team
http://blogs.sun.com/calum             +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems