Re: Dia Image Copyrights

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Mon, 7 Jun 2004, Alexander Larsson wrote:

> Date: 07 Jun 2004 10:35:01 +0200
> From: Alexander Larsson <alla lysator liu se>
> Reply-To: discussions about usage and development of dia
>     <dia-list gnome org>
> To: pg smith <pete linuxbox co uk>
> Cc: dia-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Dia Image Copyrights
>
> On Sun, 2004-06-06 at 13:08, pg smith wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Firstly, thanks for the excellent program, it works very nicely indeed.
> > I'm in the process of writing a book, and would like to use Dia for
> > creating the illustrations. I'm aware that Dia is GPL'd, but my publisher
> > has asked me just to double check that the clip art images it uses are
> > also free from restrictions on reproduction (Dia will of course be
> > credited in the book).
>
> I'm not sure if we have this actually written down anywhere, but that
> sure was the intention. I've cc:ed the mailing list where the current
> developers hang out so that they can confirm their parts, but for sure
> all the graphical details that I've written are free to use in
> publishing etc.
>
> We should probably have this written down in a prominent place on the
> web page though.

I always wondered how the GPL applies to templates and data and other non
'source code' items.  The clear intent of the developers is for documents
to be freely used for any purpose and Dia has been previously used by
other book authors.  Does anyone know how exactly this works?  Should we
add a specific GPL exception for the Dia templates?
I always intended my templates to be Public Domain, perhaps we should ask
people to register templates with the Creative commons and add their
XML license block?

If you tell us what shapes you are using we might be able to contact the
original author to get specific assurances, as none of us are lawyers we
cannot really offer any sort of a legally binding assurance but I think
precedent and developer intent should be enough.  I dont think crediting
Dia is even necessary but it is very much welcomed and appreciated.

- Alan