Hello,
my question has two parts. First I am asking about which licence to choose how to express in SPDX manner for a specific situation. Second is about which alternative situations are imaginable.
We are a FLOSS project (GPL-v2-or-later) now having an extern author offering us a logo for free. He is not very interested in licensing issues. We want to use (and modify) the logo for our project but also want to prevent other projects to use that logo in other contexts. To my understanding this could be achieved if the author grant the project an exclusive-use license with rights to modify in perpetuity.
But this is not a FLOSS license. How can I express such a license with SDPX?
If you have another idea how we could achieve our goals please let me know.
Best, Christian Buhtz https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/215
Please let me add some thoughts.
Am I right to say that from the perspective of SPDX/REUSE it doesn't matter what is between the project maintainers and the external logo author?
Let's assume that logo author gave the project an exclusive right to use and modify the logo. That "right" is written down in an email not in an official standardized license texts. What options do we have as a project to add this file to to the project according to SPDX? There need to be a licence identifier.
And we also need to consider rules from Debian GNU/Linux. They are very strict when it comes to licensing. So the license used need to be compatible with Debian, too.
That topic gives me a headache. Does anyone know how a FLOSS project, without any money can get legal advice about something like this?
Hi Christian,
Am Dienstag 27 August 2024 11:54:32 schrieb c.buhtz@posteo.jp:
Let's assume that logo author gave the project an exclusive right to use and modify the logo.
if you have all exclusive rights, then you can place the work under (almost) any license you like. You may need to name the authors.
That topic gives me a headache.
Sorry to hear that. It shouldn't. However this is not the right mailinglist to discuss the licensing issues itself, as Reuse just allows you to indicate the right holders and the license(s) in a good way.
Asking on a public fsfe-* mailinglist is a better place. (Which you did on fsfe-de, I've send you some answers there today to related questions.)
Does anyone know how a FLOSS project, without any money can get legal advice about something like this?
A Free Software initiative can get assistance from a number of organisations, including the FSFE. However if you say "legal advice", that is regulated tightly in some countries. In Germany - until recently - you could not give legal advise without payment. Now some associations can do it - as far as I know - but it is not an easy thing. The good news is: Usually you do not need "legal advice" (see my post on fsfe-de@).
Regards, Bernhard