xfce4-weather-plugin: symbols & descriptions update

[Harald Judt]

Am 29.08.2012 21:28, schrieb Colin Leroy:
> On 29 August 2012 at 17h57, Harald Judt wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
>> So I have no answer, but perhaps the former devs (that's why this
>> mail will additionally be sent to all people listed in AUTHORS) can
>> shed a light on this? Where does the "liquid" theme originate from
>> (weather.com)? And more important, what are its terms and conditions
>> of usage?
>
> I have no idea either - as Harald says, these icons were already in
> place when I took brief maintainership of the plugin...
>
> Can we suppose they're under the same license as the rest of code ?

Some more thoughts on this:

First, I'm not very acquainted with all that weather stuff, but it seems 
there are many icon sets out there that are trying to be compatible with 
the weather channel API. So just because it's compatible with that API 
doesn't mean it has to originate from weather.com. Besides, all original 
weather channel / intellicast icons I have seen clearly do not match the 
ones used by the weather plugin, and there is a video with all weather 
channel / intellicast icons before 2006 or so on youtube.

Second, you can find similar icons on the web, but not identical ones. 
There is a "liquid" weather icon theme, but it has a noticably different 
style.

Third, some icons have been composed from other icons previously. For 
example, commit 
git.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfce4-weather-plugin/commit/?id=2044df04857a00ebb10ce4da23b093dc36b9df24. 
So if there was some license inhibiting this, someone would have had the 
chance to complain for a long time now.

Fourth, maybe the GPL applies to the icons anyway, and there simply is 
no separate license file for the theme.

Finally, let's elaborate about the risk someone complains. Having looked 
at various commercial and non-commercial products, I couldn't find any 
traces of the origin. The plugin is open-source, without any intention 
to make profit. It dates back to 2004, and the icons have been packaged 
and distributed with it many times. No one complained for 8 years, why 
would he now?

So until someone proves the contrary, let's assume the icons are part of 
the plugin and the GPL applies to them too. Clarification from any 
previous dev would still be very welcome, though. 0.8.2 is ready for 
release, and I will not replace the existing icon set now, but maybe in 
the next version, just to be on the safe side.

Harald

-- 
`Experience is the best teacher.'