A few comments

[Ethan Blanton]

Eion Robb spake unto us the following wisdom:
> Sorry, that's what I was meaning... just for the Protocol icon.  A lot of  
> the protocol icons are trademarks of companies (eg the AIM one).  Is it  
> classed as fair use?  Are the protocol icons in Pidgin recreated or copies  
> of the originals?  Would they count as derivative works or trademark  
> infringements?

In some cases, there are GPL or otherwise freely-available icons
available -- for example, in the case of AIM, emoticons, AIM icons,
and various other pieces of artwork were released in the GPL-licensed
TiK client.  In others, there is not.  In either case, all of our
current protocol icons (I believe) are original artwork which is
merely inspired by the official protocol symbols.  We believe that
using this inspired artwork to identify the respective services is
fair use.

This is all obviously less encumbered than the abomination of a GPL
violation which is any plugin linking the Skype API.  Since your
plugin can never be legally released, you may use whatever artwork you
so choose for your own purposes.

Ethan

-- 
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes.
		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764
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