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The license states - "In the Font Awesome Free download, the CC BY 4.0 license applies to all icons packaged as .svg and .js files types. ... Attribution is required by MIT, SIL OFL, and CC BY licenses. Downloaded Font Awesome Free files already contain embedded comments with sufficient attribution, so you shouldn't need to do anything additional when using these files normally. "

If I download the icons (.SVG code which comes with commented attribution) and use it in a website will that be sufficient attribution? The CC BY 4.0 states to attribute in a reasonable manner.

If I am not downloading the SVG icons and using it using react icons or their npm package "@fortawesome/free-solid-svg-icons", will the license still be applicable?

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  • I don't think it is good enough. I downloaded one of the "Free" icons of FontAwesome (fontawesome.com/icons/user?s=solid&f=classic (not sure if this is the same font family you are using)) and the language in the icon itself is "<svg xmlns="w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 448 512"><!--! Font Awesome Pro 6.2.1 by @fontawesome - fontawesome.com License - fontawesome.com/license (Commercial License) Copyright 2022 Fonticons, Inc. --><path d="M224 256c7 ... ... H178.3z"/></svg>" There is no mention of CC-BY-4.0
    – Martin_in_AUT
    Dec 27, 2022 at 10:25
  • fontawesome.com/license is the pro license I guess, check this link
    – hdtk
    Dec 27, 2022 at 13:43

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The language in a free license icon is (slightly truncated):

xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512" ...!--! Font Awesome Free 6.2.1 by @fontawesome - https://fontawesome.com License - https://fontawesome.com/license/free (Icons: CC BY 4.0, Fonts: SIL OFL 1.1, Code: MIT License) Copyright 2022 Fonticons, Inc. --...path d="M96 0C60.7 0... ...V336z"

The CC BY 4.0 license demands "...provide a link to the license..." but the icon only provides an indirect link to the license (a link to a page which has a link to the license). So that's not exactly what the license says. But because the original author is not bound by the license this is OK (even though it is not user-friendly).

To repair that (without touching the code of each icon) you could simply include a statement in the 'About' page of your website (or somewhere else) stating something like "some Icons by Font Awesome https://fontawesome.com, Copyright 2022 Fonticons, Inc, License: CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode ".

If you have a text editor, which supports a 'batch find and replace' function, then you can easily modify the license language in each of the icon files and add the URL of the CC-BY 4.0 license before use with your website.

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    Ya, as they didn't state to give attribution everywhere I used the icons I think I will add the attribution in about page instead of the footer. Thanks.
    – hdtk
    Dec 27, 2022 at 17:52

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