Policy on works using unacceptable licenses?

Máirín Duffy duffy at fedoraproject.org
Tue Sep 23 17:26:54 UTC 2008


Hi folks,

Since it is now clear we have some licensing issues with at least one of 
the candidates for the theme, I would like to hear your thoughts on what 
we should do. Since the vote is in art team members' hands I think it's 
our call to decide what to do next.

Here are the options as I see them and/or as have been suggested to me:

1 - disqualify invinXble as a theme, even if invinXble wins, the 
2nd-place winner will win

2 - if invinXble (or any theme that has photos we aren't able to source) 
wins, replace any sourced photographs in it with properly-licensed ones

3 - disqualify any themes that use images we cannot find 
properly-licensed photo source references for.

For what it's worth, anyway, here are my thoughts:

I've considered option 1 because I think it would make it quite clear 
that as a team we can not and will not tolerate risks to Fedora's 
freedom. While I can understand an accidental slip-up or 
misunderstanding, I cannot understand deception taken to this degree 
over time (posting multiple fake sources, 'cover ups' in the source 
files, repeated denials, broken promises) and I don't want us to look as 
if we endorse that kind of behavior in any way. If invinXble ends up 
being the default for Fedora, at least for myself, it would be a 
continual reminder of this deception even if it was repaired.

As for option 2, I have offered to do the work needed but I also 
understand this may be quite some work and we *cannot* slip and miss the 
preview release. It's may need to involve me going to Boston Museum of 
Fine Arts for a katana shoot... Consider this the 'making lemonade out 
of lemons' option.

I don't know if 3 is really a viable option; it will be a lot of work to 
replace source photos we aren't sure of, but it will also be a lot of 
work to expand the other two themes to a final state. (both Neon and 
Grub need grub and syslinux designs and overall refinement.)

I do think that in their current state, inviXble and potentially Solar 
are not acceptable for inclusion in Fedora. I think Solar will be easier 
to repair than invinXble. The moon photo in Solar is not as visible and 
central as the katana photo in invinXble.

~m

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/F10Themes/Neon#Round_2




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