widelands-dev team mailing list archive

[Hans Joachim Desserud <launchpad@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Now I need some input on how to handle the license before we merge this.

Hello. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, this is a good question. 

Up until now, I don't think we have treated the graphics (or any other files in the repo) different from source files. So any existing files are effectively covered by the GPL2.0 like the source code*.

Being a different license, I suppose it should be noted somewhere that these particular files are licensed under CC-BY-SA3.0. It was easy to add the license texts alongside the fonts, but I don't know whether we should drop one next to each of these graphics file or if we should simply have a text document in the root directory of the repo stating which files are covered by other licenses. (Or both?)

I haven't investigated thoroughly, but I don't think mixing these licenses should be problematic. After all, both the GPL and CC-BY-SA are made for much the same reasons and purposes**. 

We do need to document that those files are under a different license however. I suggested some approaches above, but I haven't really decided. I'm pondering whether it would be a good idea to have a small document listing all the other licenses and third party fonts/code we include though. (Similar to the debian/copyright, but maybe a bit more lightweight).

And just to throw it out there, there's an alternative at the opposite end of the spectrum. If we wish to keep a single license, i.e. GPL2.0, for all graphics we could ask for a relicensed version of these files. Since fraang has made them, he or she might choose to release them under any given license. Assuming CC-BY-SA and GPL can be mixed, I don't know if there's a strong reason for this except less bookkeeping though.


* Notable exceptions are of course third party code we include and the fonts.
** CreativeCommons-licenses are actually more suited for content, while the GPL focuses on software.

PS. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, so anything I've said should not be considered legal advice. :)
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