diff --git a/includes/DefaultSettings.php b/includes/DefaultSettings.php
index 7ab734b33b9..0dc2d9f6484 100644
--- a/includes/DefaultSettings.php
+++ b/includes/DefaultSettings.php
@@ -2262,6 +2262,25 @@ $wgDisableOutputCompression = false;
  */
 $wgExperimentalHtmlIds = true;
 
+/**
+ * Abstract list of footer icons for skins in place of old copyrightico and poweredbyico code
+ * You can add new icons to the built in copyright or poweredby, or you can create
+ * a new block. Though note that you may need to add some custom css to get good styling
+ * of new blocks in monobook. vector and modern should work without any special css.
+ */
+$wgFooterIcons = array(
+	"copyright" => array(
+		"copyright" => array(), // placeholder for the built in copyright icon
+	),
+	"poweredby" => array(
+		"mediawiki" => array(
+			"src" => null, // Defaults to "$wgStylePath/common/images/poweredby_mediawiki_88x31.png"
+			"url" => "http://www.mediawiki.org/",
+			"alt" => "Powered by MediaWiki",
+		)
+	),
+);
+
 /**
  * Search form behavior for Vector skin only
  * true = use an icon search button
diff --git a/includes/Setup.php b/includes/Setup.php
index d78aade74a2..b937c0ead84 100644
--- a/includes/Setup.php
+++ b/includes/Setup.php
@@ -63,6 +63,28 @@ if( isset( $wgFileStore['deleted']['directory'] ) ) {
 	$wgDeletedDirectory = $wgFileStore['deleted']['directory'];
 }
 
+if( isset($wgFooterIcons["copyright"]) &&
+  isset($wgFooterIcons["copyright"]["copyright"]) &&
+  $wgFooterIcons["copyright"]["copyright"] === array() ) {
+	if ( isset( $wgCopyrightIcon ) && $wgCopyrightIcon ) {
+		$wgFooterIcons["copyright"]["copyright"] = $wgCopyrightIcon;
+	} elseif ( $wgRightsIcon || $wgRightsText ) {
+		$wgFooterIcons["copyright"]["copyright"] = array(
+			"url" => $wgRightsUrl,
+			"src" => $wgRightsIcon,
+			"alt" => $wgRightsText,
+		);
+	} else {
+		unset($wgFooterIcons["copyright"]["copyright"]);
+	}
+}
+
+if( isset($wgFooterIcons["poweredby"]) &&
+  isset($wgFooterIcons["poweredby"]["mediawiki"]) &&
+  $wgFooterIcons["poweredby"]["mediawiki"]["src"] === null ) {
+	$wgFooterIcons["poweredby"]["mediawiki"]["src"] = "$wgStylePath/common/images/poweredby_mediawiki_88x31.png";
+}
+
 /**
  * Unconditional protection for NS_MEDIAWIKI since otherwise it's too easy for a
  * sysadmin to set $wgNamespaceProtection incorrectly and leave the wiki insecure.
diff --git a/includes/SkinTemplate.php b/includes/SkinTemplate.php
index 5a78f909f39..a7229712397 100644
--- a/includes/SkinTemplate.php
+++ b/includes/SkinTemplate.php
@@ -425,6 +425,21 @@ class SkinTemplate extends Skin {
 				'disclaimer',
 			),
 		) );
+		
+		global $wgFooterIcons;
+		$tpl->set( 'footericons', $wgFooterIcons );
+		foreach ( $tpl->data["footericons"] as $footerIconsKey => &$footerIconsBlock ) {
+			if ( count($footerIconsBlock) > 0 ) {
+				foreach ( $footerIconsBlock as &$footerIcon ) {
+					if ( isset($footerIcon["src"]) ) {
+						if ( !isset($footerIcon["width"]) ) $footerIcon["width"] = 88;
+						if ( !isset($footerIcon["height"]) ) $footerIcon["height"] = 31;
+					}
+				}
+			} else {
+				unset($tpl->data["footericons"][$footerIconsKey]);
+			}
+		}
 
 		if ( $wgDebugComments ) {
 			$tpl->setRef( 'debug', $out->mDebugtext );
diff --git a/skins/Modern.php b/skins/Modern.php
index c5bddc63bcf..086f8bfabce 100644
--- a/skins/Modern.php
+++ b/skins/Modern.php
@@ -21,17 +21,6 @@ class SkinModern extends SkinTemplate {
 	var $skinname = 'modern', $stylename = 'modern',
 		$template = 'ModernTemplate', $useHeadElement = true;
 
-	/*
-	 * We don't like the default getPoweredBy, the icon clashes with the
-	 * skin L&F.
-	 */
-	function getPoweredBy() {
-		global $wgVersion;
-		$text = "<div class='mw_poweredby'>Powered by MediaWiki $wgVersion</div>";
-		wfRunHooks( 'SkinGetPoweredBy', array( &$text, $this ) );
-		return $text;
-	}
-
 	function setupSkinUserCss( OutputPage $out ){
 		// Do not call parent::setupSkinUserCss(), we have our own print style
 		$out->addStyle( 'common/shared.css', 'screen' );
@@ -63,6 +52,18 @@ class ModernTemplate extends MonoBookTemplate {
 		// Suppress warnings to prevent notices about missing indexes in $this->data
 		wfSuppressWarnings();
 
+		// Generate additional footer links
+		$footerlinks = $this->data["footerlinks"];
+		// fold footerlinks into a single array using a bit of trickery
+		$footerlinks = call_user_func_array('array_merge', array_values($footerlinks));
+		// Generate additional footer icons
+		$footericons = $this->data["footericons"];
+		// Unset copyright.copyright since we don't need the icon and already output a copyright from footerlinks
+		unset($footericons["copyright"]["copyright"]);
+		if ( count($footericons["copyright"]) <= 0 ) {
+			unset($footericons["copyright"]);
+		}
+
 		$this->html( 'headelement' );
 ?>
 
@@ -182,10 +183,6 @@ class ModernTemplate extends MonoBookTemplate {
 	<div id="footer"<?php $this->html('userlangattributes') ?>>
 			<ul id="f-list">
 <?php
-		$footerlinks = array(
-			'lastmod', 'viewcount', 'numberofwatchingusers', 'credits', 'copyright',
-			'privacy', 'about', 'disclaimer', 'tagline',
-		);
 		foreach( $footerlinks as $aLink ) {
 			if( isset( $this->data[$aLink] ) && $this->data[$aLink] ) {
 ?>				<li id="<?php echo$aLink?>"><?php $this->html($aLink) ?></li>
@@ -193,7 +190,25 @@ class ModernTemplate extends MonoBookTemplate {
 		}
 ?>
 			</ul>
-		<?php echo $this->html("poweredbyico"); ?>
+<?php
+		foreach ( $footericons as $blockName => $footerIcons ) { ?>
+			<div id="mw_<?php echo htmlspecialchars($blockName); ?>">
+<?php
+			foreach ( $footerIcons as $icon ) { 
+				if ( is_string($icon) ) {
+					$html = $icon;
+				} else {
+					$html = htmlspecialchars($icon["alt"]);
+					if ( $icon["url"] ) {
+						$html = Html::element( 'a', array( "href" => $icon["url"] ), $html );
+					}
+				}
+				echo "				$html\n";
+			} ?>
+			</div>
+<?php
+		}
+?>
 	</div>
 
 	<?php $this->html('bottomscripts'); /* JS call to runBodyOnloadHook */ ?>
diff --git a/skins/MonoBook.php b/skins/MonoBook.php
index 663279aca83..e3e2e9a3b04 100644
--- a/skins/MonoBook.php
+++ b/skins/MonoBook.php
@@ -74,6 +74,22 @@ class MonoBookTemplate extends QuickTemplate {
 		$footerlinks = $this->data["footerlinks"];
 		// fold footerlinks into a single array using a bit of trickery
 		$footerlinks = call_user_func_array('array_merge', array_values($footerlinks));
+		// Generate additional footer icons
+		$footericons = $this->data["footericons"];
+		// Unset any icons which don't have an image
+		foreach ( $footericons as $footerIconsKey => &$footerIconsBlock ) {
+			foreach ( $footerIconsBlock as $footerIconKey => $footerIcon ) {
+				if ( !is_string($footerIcon) && !isset($footerIcon["src"]) ) {
+					unset($footerIconsBlock[$footerIconKey]);
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		// Redo removal of any empty blocks
+		foreach ( $footericons as $footerIconsKey => &$footerIconsBlock ) {
+			if ( count($footerIconsBlock) <= 0 ) {
+				unset($footericons[$footerIconsKey]);
+			}
+		}
 
 		$this->html( 'headelement' );
 ?><div id="globalWrapper">
@@ -171,12 +187,26 @@ class MonoBookTemplate extends QuickTemplate {
 </div><!-- end of the left (by default at least) column -->
 <div class="visualClear"></div>
 <div id="footer"<?php $this->html('userlangattributes') ?>>
-<?php
-if($this->data['poweredbyico']) { ?>
-	<div id="f-poweredbyico"><?php $this->html('poweredbyico') ?></div>
-<?php }
-if($this->data['copyrightico']) { ?>
-	<div id="f-copyrightico"><?php $this->html('copyrightico') ?></div>
+<?php foreach ( $footericons as $blockName => $footerIcons ) { ?>
+	<div id="f-<?php echo htmlspecialchars($blockName); ?>ico">
+<?php	foreach ( $footerIcons as $icon ) { 
+			if ( is_string($icon) ) {
+				$html = $icon;
+			} else {
+				$url = $icon["url"];
+				unset($icon["url"]);
+				if ( isset($icon["src"]) ) {
+					$html = Html::element( 'img', $icon ); // do this the lazy way, just pass icon data as an attribute array
+				} else {
+					$html = htmlspecialchars($icon["alt"]);
+				}
+				if ( $url ) {
+					$html = Html::rawElement( 'a', array( "href" => $url ), $html );
+				}
+			}
+			echo "		$html\n";
+		} ?>
+	</div>
 <?php }
 
 		// Generate additional footer links
diff --git a/skins/Vector.php b/skins/Vector.php
index b57432e0cd9..057f2054cf8 100644
--- a/skins/Vector.php
+++ b/skins/Vector.php
@@ -413,13 +413,7 @@ class VectorTemplate extends QuickTemplate {
 
 		// Generate additional footer links
 		$footerlinks = $this->data["footerlinks"];
-		// footerlinks doesn't include icons for now, so we'll just append the default
-		$footerlinks["icons"] = array( 'poweredbyico', 'copyrightico', );
 		
-		$footerlinksClasses = array(
-			'icons' => array( 'noprint' )
-		);
-
 		// Reduce footer links down to only those which are being used
 		$validFooterLinks = array();
 		foreach( $footerlinks as $category => $links ) {
@@ -430,6 +424,24 @@ class VectorTemplate extends QuickTemplate {
 				}
 			}
 		}
+		
+		// Generate additional footer icons
+		$footericons = $this->data["footericons"];
+		// Unset any icons which don't have an image
+		foreach ( $footericons as $footerIconsKey => &$footerIconsBlock ) {
+			foreach ( $footerIconsBlock as $footerIconKey => $footerIcon ) {
+				if ( !is_string($footerIcon) && !isset($footerIcon["src"]) ) {
+					unset($footerIconsBlock[$footerIconKey]);
+				}
+			}
+		}
+		// Redo removal of any empty blocks
+		foreach ( $footericons as $footerIconsKey => &$footerIconsBlock ) {
+			if ( count($footerIconsBlock) <= 0 ) {
+				unset($footericons[$footerIconsKey]);
+			}
+		}
+		
 		// Reverse horizontally rendered navigation elements
 		if ( $wgLang->isRTL() ) {
 			$this->data['view_urls'] =
@@ -523,7 +535,7 @@ class VectorTemplate extends QuickTemplate {
 		<div id="footer"<?php $this->html('userlangattributes') ?>>
 			<?php foreach( $validFooterLinks as $category => $links ): ?>
 				<?php if ( count( $links ) > 0 ): ?>
-				<ul id="footer-<?php echo $category ?>"<?php if (isset($footerlinksClasses[$category])) echo ' class="' . implode(" ", $footerlinksClasses[$category]) . '"'; ?>>
+				<ul id="footer-<?php echo $category ?>">
 					<?php foreach( $links as $link ): ?>
 						<?php if( isset( $this->data[$link] ) && $this->data[$link] ): ?>
 						<li id="footer-<?php echo $category ?>-<?php echo $link ?>"><?php $this->html( $link ) ?></li>
@@ -532,6 +544,31 @@ class VectorTemplate extends QuickTemplate {
 				</ul>
 				<?php endif; ?>
 			<?php endforeach; ?>
+<?php			if ( count( $footericons ) > 0 ): ?>
+				<ul id="footer-icons">
+<?php			foreach ( $footericons as $blockName => $footerIcons ): ?>
+					<li id="footer-<?php echo htmlspecialchars($blockName); ?>ico" class="noprint">
+<?php					foreach ( $footerIcons as $icon ):
+							if ( is_string($icon) ) {
+								$html = $icon;
+							} else {
+								$url = $icon["url"];
+								unset($icon["url"]);
+								if ( isset($icon["src"]) ) {
+									$html = Html::element( 'img', $icon ); // do this the lazy way, just pass icon data as an attribute array
+								} else {
+									$html = htmlspecialchars($icon["alt"]);
+								}
+								if ( $url ) {
+									$html = Html::rawElement( 'a', array( "href" => $url ), $html );
+								}
+							}
+							echo "						$html\n";
+						endforeach; ?>
+					</li>
+<?php			endforeach; ?>
+				</ul>
+			<?php endif; ?>
 			<div style="clear:both"></div>
 		</div>
 		<!-- /footer -->