>>>>> On Tue, 27 Aug 2024, c buhtz wrote: > I am an upstream maintainer of a GPL-v2-or-later project. > We plan to have our own logo and thinking about how to license this. > It might come to the case that the logo file (e.g. logo.svg, logo.png, > logo.ico) won't be licensed with an OSI accepted licence but with a > more closed license. This is because we don't want to get this logo > used in other contexts. The logo should be exclusive to the project. I > am not sure how to achieve this in another way. > To my understanding GNU/Linux Debian is quit strict when it comes to > free software principles. > Are there any rules or restrictions I need to consider when it comes > to a situation like this? > Is it even allowed to package such a non-OSI-licensed logo in a > GNU/Linux Debian package? > If you have another idea how we could achieve our goals please let me > know. Trying to achieve this with copyright alone will be awkward, because copyright is the wrong tool for this. Instead, you may want to consider registering a trademark for your logo. This would give you control over its use, while at the same time it could be under a free (copyright) license. For example, the Gentoo logo has CC-BY-SA as its copyright license while at the same time it is protected as a trademark with some usage guidelines [1]. The downside is that registering a trademark requires some paperwork and costs money. You'd also need a legal entity as the trademark holder. There was a nice introductory talk / case study about the subject at this year's FOSDEM [2]. Ulrich [1] https://www.gentoo.org/inside-gentoo/foundation/name-logo-guidelines.html [2] https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-2595-figuring-out-trademark-policy-on-the-fly/
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature