Re: Making webplatform.org skin publicly available?

On 4/3/13 4:22 AM, Tobie Langel wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 10:16 AM, Chris Mills wrote:
>> On 2 Apr 2013, at 20:31, Ryan Lane <rlane32@gmail.com (mailto:rlane32@gmail.com)> wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 5:55 AM, Tobie Langel <tobie@fb.com (mailto:tobie@fb.com)> wrote:
>>> If by "skin" you mean actual design (color palette, typography, etc.), this should certainly be open-sourced for outside contributions, but also protected against being re-used as is elsewhere (which would dilute the brand).
>>>
>>>
>>> It's basically impossible to open source something, then disallow its use. If we distribute the skin we just have to accept other sites will look like webplatform.
>> Too true.
> So I'm not familiar with how the skinning precisely works here. But maybe we could open-source all of it except for a config file containing the font choice and color scheme?

I'm not sure about the technical details, but a determined person would 
be able to reverse-engineer those details if they want to make a 
copy-cat site. Also, holding back some files from being open sourced 
sends a mixed message about the project's commitment to openness.

The strategy that Mozilla uses is to open source the code whenever 
possible, but protect the trademarks (name and logo). (This is not 
without controversy among free software purists -- search keyword "ice 
weasel".) I think that is a reasonable balance between openness and 
brand preservation.

-- 
Janet Swisher <mailto:jREMOVEswisher@mozilla.com>
Mozilla Developer Network <https://developer.mozilla.org>
Technical Writer/Community Steward