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Hello all,

Could you clarify the situation regarding the use of Icon Drawer Classic Icons (which are used on the ExpressionEngine site) within 3rd-party addons please?

My initial assumption was that a separate license would need to be purchased from Icon Drawer for such a thing, but then I noticed that the default ExpressionEngine theme uses several of the Icon Drawer icons (the “Home” icon, “World” icon, and “Script” icon, at the very least).

Which leaves us with the following possibilities:
1. The standard EE license includes a permission (perhaps implicit) to use any of the Icon Drawer Classic icons within the Control Panel of a licensed EE site.
2. The standard EE license covers the usage of only those icons included in the pre-installed themes.
3. EllisLab are being naughty, and have included the icons without permission.
4. Some other possibility that I haven’t considered.

Could you clarify which of the four options is the case please?

Thanks,
Stephen

Hi Stephen,

I’m not sure why you are posting this in pre-sales instead of emailing us or posting in the Pro Net forums as its not a sales question. But I’ll answer it here anyway. 

We’re human and make mistakes, but we’d never knowingly violate someone’s copyright (aka naughty) and we tend to be on the thorough side of investigating such matters.

The Icon Drawer Agreement (in the sidebar of their buy page) includes the right to use the icons in software applications, which would include EE’s Control Panel. So from your list, it would be #1. You’ll note that the only way to get the “theme” is in EE itself. We do not distribute it separately.

If your question is whether 3rd party devs are allowed to use Icon Drawer’s icons in their add-ons under EllisLab’s Icon Drawer license purchase, I’m fairly sure the answer would be no as Icon Drawer’s agreement states:

The icon may not be sublicensed, resold, rented, transferred, or otherwise made available for use or detached from a product, software application, or web page

3rd party add-ons are technically 3rd party applications with their own licenses and owners. In short, EllisLab does not own 3rd party code so I don’t see how 3rd parties would be covered. Also, the icons would likely have to be included in the add-on download itself or we’d have to package all the icons somewhere in EE specifically so 3rd parties could make use of them. Either option seems a pretty clear violation of Icon Drawer’s terms.

However, I’ll email them and check just to be certain. It would be nice if it were included but I wouldn’t get my hopes up. Fortunately their terms are really nice and the price is affordable.

Hi Leslie,

I’m not sure why you are posting this in pre-sales instead of emailing us or posting in the Pro Net forums as its not a sales question. But I’ll answer it here anyway.

Mostly because I couldn’t find a suitable forum category, and it didn’t seem like a pro-only question. As for emailing, in truth that didn’t occur to me. Sorry if this is in some way inappropriate.

We’re human and make mistakes, but we’d never knowingly violate someone’s copyright (aka naughty) and we tend to be on the thorough side of investigating such matters.

My comment wasn’t intended to be an accusation of any sort, so apologies if it sounded like one.

3rd party add-ons are technically 3rd party applications with their own licenses and owners. In short, EllisLab does not own 3rd party code so I don’t see how 3rd parties would be covered. Also, the icons would likely have to be included in the add-on download itself or we’d have to package all the icons somewhere in EE specifically so 3rd parties could make use of them. Either option seems a pretty clear violation of Icon Drawer’s terms.

Thanks for the clarification. I figured it wouldn’t cover 3rd party addons (unless they’re just loading the icons already bundled with the theme), but thought it was worth checking.

Cheers,
Stephen

No worries Stephen. I’m sure others will find the information useful.

In my email to Icon Drawer I asked if a distribution agreement to 3rd parties is an option or if we can offer a discount to EE devs somehow. We’ll see what they say but really they are already so affordable I almost felt bad asking. Almost.

In my email to Icon Drawer I asked if a distribution agreement to 3rd parties is an option or if we can offer a discount to EE devs somehow. We’ll see what they say but really they are already so affordable I almost felt bad asking. Almost.

Thanks Leslie. And thanks for working through the guilt for our benefit 😊

Cheers,
Stephen