Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

Posted Jan 17, 2022 0:30 UTC (Mon) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129)
In reply to: Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts) by tuna
Parent article: Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

That letter is just completely weird.

First they literally say “Please don't theme our apps”. Later they say that if you want to “tinker”, which in this context context could only mean messing around with the theming, then “that’s fine with us”. And a bit after that, they say “Just because our apps use GTK that does not mean we’re ok with them being changed from under us”. Come on guys, which one is it: are you OK with it or not?

They also point out that they could just disable theming in their apps, but reject that idea because according to them this is somehow “not a technical problem” (I don't see how it isn't). And then just a few lines later, it says that “GTK should stop forcing a single stylesheet on all apps by default”, which makes no sense because GTK doesn't do that (you don't get to say that something is “forced” upon your app if you can disable), and because they're really just asking for GTK to do the technical fix that they themselves refuse to do.

It also says that “You are not doing this to Blender, Atom, Telegram, or other third party apps”. Well duh, those apps don't use GTK. And overall, I just don't see their point. If your app doesn't work with custom themes and you don't want to support that, then stop complaining and just disable theming. This isn't that complicated…

Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

Posted Jan 17, 2022 0:56 UTC (Mon) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325) [Link] (5 responses)

> Later they say that if you want to “tinker”, which in this context context could only mean messing around with the theming, then “that’s fine with us”.

In this context, they are obviously referring to individual end users doing clearly unsupported things such as recompiling the app or modifying its config files, which is an entirely different kettle of fish to distro-wide theming support.

> Come on guys, which one is it: are you OK with it or not?

My interpretation: They are OK with it (theming) if and only if nobody ever files a bug report about it breaking. They don't want to support it and they don't want to deal with the noise it generates when other people try to support it. But if some individual user opens up the app and screws around with its internals, then that user gets to keep both pieces when it breaks.

Furthermore, as far as the app icons are concerned, they are completely correct. You cannot re-draw somebody else's trademarked icon in a different style and just use it as if it were their official icon. That's a violation of trademark law, if the app's icon is trademarked (e.g. Firefox, which they show in their screenshot), and a great way to get sued.

Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

Posted Jan 17, 2022 3:08 UTC (Mon) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129) [Link] (4 responses)

> In this context, they are obviously referring to individual end users doing clearly unsupported things such as recompiling the app or modifying its config files

That makes it even weirder. It’s not like I need their permission to muck around on my computer. They shouldn't be opining on that sort of thing at all, whether they approve of it or not.

Anyway, I still think they should just stop whining, disable theming and be done with it. And honestly, if you're going to sue somebody because they made a version of your icon in a different style that they like better, then maybe this whole open source thing just isn't for you.

Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

Posted Jan 17, 2022 8:21 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

As I read it, it's quite simple.

InkScape permits theming, great.

Distros apply their own distro theme, WITHOUT QA.

Users blame InkScape.

So as someone else put it, if you break it, you keep both pieces. But the distros are breaking it, and the bits are being sent to InkScape.

Cheers,
Wol

Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

Posted Jan 17, 2022 19:22 UTC (Mon) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325) [Link] (2 responses)

> And honestly, if you're going to sue somebody because they made a version of your icon in a different style that they like better, then maybe this whole open source thing just isn't for you.

You don't have a choice. Trademark law says you enforce your trademark or you (potentially) lose it.

Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

Posted Jan 20, 2022 19:27 UTC (Thu) by flussence (guest, #85566) [Link] (1 responses)

No it doesn't, and that would fall under nominative use anyway.

Streamlining Inkscape for the masses (Libre Arts)

Posted Jan 21, 2022 9:18 UTC (Fri) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325) [Link]

> No it doesn't

Please elaborate. Trademark abandonment is a well-established area of law.

> and that would fall under nominative use anyway.

Nominative use means you can refer to Firefox as Firefox and (probably) use its logo verbatim to refer to the unmodified software. It does not mean you get to play graphic designer and make your own fake Firefox logo. That's an open and shut case of dilution.