re-license default project icon as public domain

[nathanfranke]

Edit: Marked as draft since this needs maintainer approval.

Edit: Closing for two reasons:

• Changing copyright should be discussed as an issue or Godot Improvement Proposal (GIP)
• Public domain is not a worldwide solution to attribution; see Moral rights (wikipedia.org)

See also: #105358

If I'm not mistaken, every new Godot project (once distributed) is technically in violation of copyright because it does not attribute the copyright of icon.png. (True, but public domain doesn't necessarily help this)

Of course, we would need clear permission from the creator to do this change.

[LinuxUserGD]

Of course, we'll need clear permission from the creator to do this change. I am not fully sure who that is, so I assumed it is the same creator who made the other icon variations.

See https://github.com/godotengine/godot/commits/master/LOGO_LICENSE.md

[timothyqiu]

See also #51028 for an alternative approach.

[deralmas]

Yeah #51028 sounds like the proper approach IMO, I have a feeling that making the project icon PD might not be the best idea.

[nathanfranke]

I agree. I'm curious to see the best way to handle license compliance on non-command line platforms though.

[Calinou]

I agree. I'm curious to see the best way to handle license compliance on non-command line platforms though.

See #51028 (comment).

[nathanfranke]

Edit: I made a tentative PR for this feature: #105358

#51028 definitely solves core problems in this area.

However, I think there is still a general legal concern here IINM:

• Create new empty Godot Project (With icon.svg)
• Upload to a public git repository
• Now icon.svg is being redistributed without attribution

I think adding license information directly to icon.svg is a great solution:

<!-- Godot Engine logo. Copyright 2017, Andrea Calabró. Licensed under CC-BY-4.0. -->
<svg ...>

[deralmas]

@nathanfranke great idea! Feel free to open a PR for that!

[nathanfranke]

Closing for two reasons:

• Changing copyright should be discussed as an issue or Godot Improvement Proposal (GIP)
• Public domain is not a worldwide solution to attribution; see Moral rights (wikipedia.org)

I made a PR to track embedding copyright metadata in the svg itself, which resolves my original concern.

See: #105358