Re: "Why is emacs so square?"

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Richard Stallman <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden
> Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 22:18:58 -0400
> 
>   > E.g., we have a lot of icons in etc/images/.  We show these icons on
>   > the tool bar and elsewhere when and where appropriate.  Are those
>   > icons part of Emacs the program, or aren't they?
> 
> I think it depends on how things work to display those images.
> And I don't remember that.
> 
> When Emacs wants to display etc/images/attach.pbm, how does that work?
> Does attach.pbm get somehow linked into Emacs?  Or does Emacs open
> etc/images/attach.pbm at run time, read it, and display it?

It's the latter.  More accurately, we look up the file in the
filesystem, then pass the full file name to an image library which we
link with Emacs, and that library reads it.  And many icon files come
with every Emacs tarball and in any binary distribution, of course.

> With the first method, they are part of one combined work.
> 
> With the second method, it is valid to say they are two separate works
> and treat them as such.

So since this is the second method, what are the legal requirements
from icon files that we bundle with Emacs?  Just a free license?  And
if so, what kind of license?  Are there any other requirements?

Thanks.