Inkscape logo has no metadata and is proprietary licence

[worms_x]

I wanted to re-use the Inkscape logo to put it in my own logo, so I opened inkscape.logo.svg which is supplied in /share/clipart, but the SVG file does not contain any metadata, and the licence says "proprietary", which, I believe, is the default when you save a file in Inkscape.

So:

1) Which licence is the logo? (Can I re-use it, modified or not, in a logo?)
2) Would it be possible to have metadata, and possibly a title, too, for the artwork in /share/clipart?
3) The Readme doesn't say anything either on the licencing, maybe that could be added?

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

According to a recent IRC discussion, Ted Gould has filled a trademark form at SFLC.
But as a tech writer, I need to know the terms of use, and particularly if I can print and modify the logo.
And, when used in a book, who registered the trademark.
It seems that there's no license, but can we consider it free (GPL)?

At least, authors and artists needs to be sure they won't be sued if they use and modify the logo in their books or drawings.

[Luca Bruno (lucab)]

I'm assigning to Ted, as he's following this issue. It looks like the logo itself is implicitely under GPL, and the correct metadata has been lost somehow in recent SVN. This affair is still being working on, though.

[uwesch (uwesch)]

There is one logo from the Author: Andy Fitzsimon

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inkscape_logo_2.svg

I wrote him an email about the license and he answered today:

"You have my unlimited permission to use the inkscape logo for all
things related to the inkscape vector graphics editor.
no written permission is needed. In-fact, you didn't even need to ask me :)

Thanks for the email.

Andy"

Does it helps in this case?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

@uwesch - seems that MenTaLguY is likely someone how remembers who designed the original logo (the one Andy Fitzsimon based his "The Inkscape logo has been re-aligned" <http://andy.brisgeek.com/archives/18> work on: see bug #181506 “Inkscape Logo "swoosh" looks awkward over dark backgrounds” which has some information about the history of the Inkscape logo...

<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/181506> comment #4:
MenTaLguY wrote on 2008-01-09:

Speaking as (one of) the original designers, the original intent was that the little "swoosh"/"smile" was a white highlight reflecting off the wet ink, rather than being knocked out of the mountain. [...]

[su_v (suv-lp)]

BTW - Andy's icon _did_ have metadata and licence included (at the time when this report was filed) and it is still included in the file you linked to on commons.wikimedia.org (including Andy's name ;-):

file committed (new icon by Andy Fitzsimon)in rev. 15977 Added Sat Sep 1 23:43:42 2007
file changed (new icon by jimmac) in rev. 21296 Modified Thu May 7 03:19:12 2009

<http://inkscape.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/inkscape/inkscape/trunk/inkscape.svg?revision=15977&view=markup&pathrev=21296>
line 190-234:

<!-- Copyright License --> <metadata
     id="metadata49">
    <rdf:RDF>
      <cc:Work
         rdf:about="etiquette-icon">
        <dc:format>image/svg+xml</dc:format>
        <dc:type
           rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/StillImage" />
        <dc:creator>
          <cc:Agent>
            <dc:title>Andy Fitzsimon</dc:title>
          </cc:Agent>
        </dc:creator>
        <dc:rights>
          <cc:Agent>
            <dc:title>Andrew Michael Fitzsimon</dc:title>
          </cc:Agent>
        </dc:rights>
        <dc:publisher>
          <cc:Agent>
            <dc:title>Fitzsimon IT Consulting Pty Ltd</dc:title>
          </cc:Agent>
        </dc:publisher>
        <dc:identifier>http://andy.fitzsimon.com.au</dc:identifier>
        <dc:date>2006</dc:date>
        <cc:license
           rdf:resource="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2/" />
      </cc:Work>
      <cc:License
         rdf:about="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2/">
        <cc:permits
           rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Reproduction" />
        <cc:permits
           rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Distribution" />
        <cc:requires
           rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Notice" />
        <cc:requires
           rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/Attribution" />
        <cc:permits
           rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/DerivativeWorks" />
        <cc:requires
           rdf:resource="http://web.resource.org/cc/ShareAlike" />
      </cc:License>
    </rdf:RDF>
  </metadata>

[su_v (suv-lp)]

(my last comment here - promised ;-)

[Aapo Rantalainen (aapo-rantalainen)]

Seems that file with license information never went to the bazaar:
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/inkscape/trunk/view/head:/share/clipart/inkscape.logo.svg 2006-06-09 04:33:53 UTC

[Martin Owens (doctormo)]

I've contacted Andrew to ask for a license change to CC-BY-SA 3.0, awaiting response...

[Martin Owens (doctormo)]

Please see r12514 for the fix. I've removed all creative commons 2.0 and 2.5 and got the permission from Andy for the logo change.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Backported to stable release branch in r10034-r10035.