Creative Commons license for pictures

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 9/27/05, Christian Jodar <tian at c-sait.net> wrote:
> Is there a way to tell something like: "OK, you can do whatever you want
> with this program and pictures but only when used in this program and
> according to GPL. But if you want to use them somewhere else, you have
> to do that according to another licence"? This would solve most of the
> problems.

Regardless of whether or not a clause like "only when used in this
program" has any legal teeth...a clause like that is certaintly
against the spirit of GPL compatibility. What about derivative works
based on the gcflims codebase? The permissions that let you use it in
gcflims would have to be broad enough for ALL GPL licensed codebases
to make sure it could continue to be used as part of a modified work
that started with chunks of gcflims code regardless of the derivative
project's name.

If you are speaking as the sole copyright holder for the gcflims
codebase...you have to make a choice when it comes to what 3rd party
code you are willing to accept into your project.  If you really mean
for gcflims to be licensed under the GPL and want to make sure that
people continue to have the freedoms protected by the GPL when using
the gcflims codebase.. you will have to avoid contributions that are
incompatible that are required for gcflims building/operation.  If you
want to offer this artwork as an optional "themable" elements that can
be packaged seperately from the gcflims codebase.. thats perfectly
fine. But if this artwork is meant to be used for such items as
default icons or hardwired graphical elements..thats a potential
problem. GCflims needs to be able to build and be fully functional
without needing any of those graphics installed. If you want to keep
your project's nose clean.. you will want to make sure the project
builds and functions using only GPL compatible elements and you can
switch to these other artwork via runtime configuration..ie themes or
plugins. For example, if these are the only functional icon graphics
you supply for items in the ui..thats a problem. If you are the sole
copyright holder to all of gcflims.. you always have the choice to
relicense to something less free..like bsd.

If you are speaking as the package maintainer for GCflims in Fedora
Extras... regardless of what the upstream decides to do... the
non-commercial character of the license on the artwork continues to be
a problem for inclusion. Most likely GCflims will have to be packaged
in Extras without that artwork, even if its an optional package...
unless its clear that selling of media containing the artwork as part
of a larger collection of software is allowed.


-jef