license for stuff in `macports-www`

[Jean Abou Samra]

Le 14/05/2021 à 07:22, Ryan Schmidt a écrit :
> On May 11, 2021, at 03:59, Jean Abou Samra wrote:
>
>> Le 11/05/2021 à 10:39, Werner LEMBERG a écrit :
>>> Looking at
>>>
>>>    https://github.com/macports/macports-www/
>>>
>>> I can't find a license statement that applies to the stuff in the
>>> repository.  So: What license is it under?  I suggest to add a small
>>> `README.md` file that mention it...
>>>
>>>
>>>      Werner
>>
>> For context, we at LilyPond (think "LaTeX for music")
>> would like to advertise MacPorts as an installation
>> method for Mac OS in our website here:
>>
>> lilypond.org/macos-x.html
>>
>> Is use of the image at
>> https://github.com/macports/macports-www/blob/master/img/macports-avatar.png
>> okay for that purpose?
>>
>>  From what I have read so far, I suspect it would fall
>> within the range of fair use. It would be simpler, however,
>> if the website content had an explicit license.
>>
>> Thanks for your consideration,
>> Jean Abou Samra
>>
> Thanks for offering to mention MacPorts as an installation method on your web site. We always appreciate that.

Well, thank you for offering MacPorts as an installation
method for LilyPond in the first place. It has been working
rather nicely, and has served many users due to problems
we are currently experiencing with Mac OS binaries.

> I don't recall having to address the issues of logo license before though I agree we should figure it out. Usually when people link to us they do it with text, but using our logo does seem nicer. If we had a choice, do you have a recommendation for what license would be suitable for the logo and/or other web site content?

If it is possible to contact all contributors of the website,
then a Creative Commons license would seem most appropriate
since the content is not code. I guess the CC-BY license would
fit the bill. It is permissive, just like MacPort's own license.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

For logos specifically, the matter is more complicated,
I think. Basically, trademark law is more relevant than
copyright. My current understanding (after reading a
few more articles than I had read at the time I wrote
the original post) is that the display of a logo on a website
is not considered an infringement on copyright (reusing
the logo to create another one could probably), but it
can be considered a violation of trademark law.


> Looks like the MacPorts logo was first committed to the web site in 2007:
>
> https://github.com/macports/macports-www/blob/9660ee91a3ba976dc492b529896d144265c9dbb4/img/macports-logo.png
>
> A 2x resolution version was committed by Jeremy Lavergne in 2013:
>
> https://github.com/macports/macports-www/commit/548f692cdf6f3b3aea014bb20088a6afcba8edee
>
> An SVG recreation was submitted by Vincent Habchi in 2015:
>
> https://lists.macports.org/pipermail/macports-dev/2015-December/032039.html
>
> And a square version for use as an avatar image was committed by Rainer Müller in 2016:
>
> https://github.com/macports/macports-www/commit/24451b4d29dca1e62d7d5dd237abec7632d7bbd8
>
> We could ask these people what license they would apply to their work. But it seems evident that their intention was to contribute their work to MacPorts for use by the project, which in my opinion includes allowing other web sites to use the logo to link back to our site. In other words, I think it's fine if you use our logo that way.

Okay, thanks. Based on this answer and various reads,
I'm convinced that using the logo is fine in our case.


> Do you specifically need a square logo? I feel that the "macports-avatar" logo isn't as identifiable since it doesn't say "MacPorts", only "MP". If a rectangular logo fits into your design, I think we might prefer that you use our normal rectangular logo, either Jeremy's 2x PNG or Vincent's SVG.
I chose this one because it was fitting better as a bullet
point similar to Apple's X on the same page (the complete
logo was too wide, sorry).

Best regards,
Jean.