The tango issue
The Tango Desktop could provide a starting point for making consistent artwork across desktop environments present in Debian.
Ubuntu has already packaged icon-naming-utils and tango-icon-theme.
MichaelBanck: Tango is currently not considered DFSG-free (it is under a CC license I believe). If this changes before etch, we could consider using Tango as a unified icon theme, if all DE teams agree.
?JossMouette: you cannot just switch icon themes for all desktop environments. It needs serious regression testing as it implies thousands of icons. GNOME tried to switch to the Tango naming scheme for 2.14 but failed. We'll fail as well if we try to use Tango with GNOME 2.14. GNOME 2.16 should be compatible with Tango, but it will probably not be straightforward. I don't know if KDE and Xfce are compatible with the Tango naming scheme.
YvesAlexisPerez: Xfce 4.4 will have its icon theme (xfce4-icon-theme package) use Tango (Inherits: Tango in index.theme).
ValessioBrito: See terms of use tango is Public Domain: The Tango base icon theme is released to the Public Domain. The palette is in public domain. Developers, feel free to ship it along with your application. The icon naming utilities are licensed under the GPL.