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Re: Icons for proprietary software in contrib package

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On Fri, 17 Apr 2026 21:24:37 -0700 Soren Stoutner <soren@debian.org>
wrote:
> No, there isn’t.  The best case scenario is when upstream includes specific
> license information for all of their icons.  However, many don’t.
>
> Debian has to assume that icons are non-free when we can’t establish that they
> are released under a DFSG-free license.  That being said, usage of icons in
> some of these cases is considered fair-use, particularly if the icons are used
> by a launcher to refer to the service the icon represents.  In those cases, it
> is acceptable for Debian to distribute them in non-free, even if the icons are
> not released under a DFSG-free license.  This is similar to how a reviewer can
> include the icon of a product they are reviewing under fair use without
> needing permission of the company that made the icon.  One of the important
> aspects of this type of fair use is that the user should be able to tell the
> icon is referring to the other company’s products/service and not to the
> software that is being distributed by us.

Thank you for such a detailed response. This made me look at other
package that I am working on. It includes QR codes with a payment
processor icon in the middle. Which is fair use, but I want to have
packages that I maintain in main/contrib so I will remove them.

-- 
Cheers
Ilya

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Re: Icons for proprietary software in contrib package Ilya Orlov <ilyaorlov124@gmail.com> - 2026-04-19 11:50 +0200

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