[OPEN-ILS-DOCUMENTATION] PDF icon: licensing concern & fix

[Dan Scott]

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 08:22:49PM +0000, Lazar, Alexey Vladimirovich wrote:
> The loopy triangle resembling a cursive "A" is Adobe's trademark:
> http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html.  The company does not want
> anyone to use that symbol, unless it is for files that were produced
> by Adobe's software.
> 
> Maybe I'm missing something, but neither GNOME nor KDE icons use that
> symbol.  They use other curvy loops, but I don't see either of the
> icons using the Adobe trademark at all.  Yes/no?

Yes, I think you're missing that the design of KDE's PDF icon [1] and
the Dropline Etiquette theme PDF icon [2] both appear to be derived
from Adobe's PDF icon [3], which in turn features Adobe's trademarked
Adobe PDF logo [4]. Taking the logo and rotating it 30 degrees or so,
or putting it on a different coloured background, doesn't magically make
all of Adobe's trademarks and licensing conditions go away.

Tony -- who is a lawyer, BTW -- said a few posts back: "I don't think
this would qualify as fair use, because the value of this icon file is
derived from its use of Adobe's trademark."

I'm inclined to go with what our lawyer says, personally.

1. http://websvn.kde.org/*checkout*/trunk/kdesupport/oxygen-icons/32x32/mimetypes/application-pdf.png
2. http://ur1.ca/9dbuy
3. http://www.adobe.com/images/pdficon_large.png
4. http://www.adobe.com/misc/pdfs/adobe_trademark_database_external040612.pdf