[Openfontlibrary] Some suggestions

[Simos Xenitellis]

Jon Phillips wrote:

>On Tue, 2005-12-06 at 01:00 +0000, Simos Xenitellis wrote:
>  
>
>>Dear All,
>>It's a bit late here, so apologies for the bullet point layout :(.
>>
>>1. It is important for the Open Font project to include fonts that are 
>>covered with a Free (as in Freedom) license, or at least distinguish 
>>between free and freeware.
>>    
>>
>
>This is a very unclear area and we need to discuss much more, as to how
>font licenses/copyright works in the USA and other countries, pick a
>license and move forward.
>  
>
It is a similar situation with the GPL. We do not know if it can stand 
in every court in every country.
However, this does not stop us and simply place our works in the public 
domain.
My view is we simply align towards organisations such as the FSF and 
delegate licensing complexities to them.

>  
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>>2. It is not good to distribute fonts individually as TTF files but as 
>>an archive (such as ZIP, 7Z, TGZ), because they should include some license.
>>    
>>
>
>Aha...I need to familiarize myself with font standards more. Is there a
>way to include the license and any metadata in current font formats? I
>think providing a package, or multiple compressed packages per font is a
>great idea.
>  
>
It is possible to include some text in the font headers, though it does 
not look good.
High quality fonts have different versions for Regular, Bold, Italics. 
These should be in the same package,
as partial installations would have bad results.
It is good for the font designer to add some text such as describing the 
fonts, adding some contact information and so on.
Also, there are different versions of fonts. How do you signify updates? 
MyFont-3.ttf?
It is similar to the situation now with the Linux kernel. Nowdays, every 
contribution is signed off
and we know who added each line of code. This helps in the accountability.

>  
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>>3. Public domain fonts do not provide freedom (a la FSF), they are bad :)
>>    
>>
>
>We debated this for Open Clip Art Library extensively in considering
>that we wanted people to be able to do anything with the fonts. I wonder
>if Open Font Library would benefit from allowing multiple different
>license types. My propensity however is to pick one good license and
>plow forward.
>  
>
It is good to contact the FSF for some insight.

>>4. The GPL is not an appropriate license for fonts, see
>>http://fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FontException
>>    
>>
>
>Right. Plus, it would be good for people to make money off their fonts
>if they would like.
>  
>
This is acceptable as well. Having the font package, it helps to add
content that the font designer would prefer donations or you can use for 
30 days or it is commercial.

>>5. A new license is being drafted, the Open Font License, by SIL 
>>(www.sil.org). FSF will be pitching on this license, see
>>http://openlists.sil.org/archives/ofl-discuss/2005-November/000025.html
>>If all goes ok, we will have a proper brand new free license for fonts. 
>>If someone has a font they want to make free, they can simply add the 
>>Open Font License in the package and there they go.
>>    
>>
>
>I work for Creative Commons and am forwarding talk about this new
>license along. I *really* would like CC to get involved in this space.
>
>  
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>>6. The Open Font License is available at
>>http://scripts.sil.org/OFL
>>    
>>
>
>Great.
>
>  
>
>>There is a discussion mailing list at
>>http://openlists.sil.org/mailman/listinfo/ofl-discuss
>>There is lots of material to read here.
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, so much to think about.
>
>  
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>>7. The Open Font License uses the initials OFL, which clashes with the 
>>Open Font Library.
>>It might look a bit marketing-y on my side, I would feel that it would 
>>be better to change Library to something like Repository, as in
>>Open Font Repository (OFR).
>>This would mean a few more bucks to register the new domain name and 
>>some administration work. Would this be ok with you? Please?
>>    
>>
>
>I dunno...Keeping Open Font Library coincides with Open Clip Art
>Library. I think it would be better to just not use the acronym as we
>have done with Open Clip Art Library.
>  
>
Ok.

>  
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>>8. SIL (www.sil.org) will be publishing high quality fonts as OFL soon. 
>>Actually, Gentium (http://scripts.sil.org/Gentium) is already available!
>>    
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>
>Great!
>
>  
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>>9. If a font is Free (as in Freedom), you can easily use a program 
>>script to convert to SVG or embedd in a document and do so many things.
>>    
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>
>Excellent!
>
>  
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>>It is an important initiative to make a public collection of Free fonts.
>>
>>    
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>
>I completely agree! Plus, we have the affiliation of freedesktop.org
>which is vital for X and FLOSS support of good fonts for the desktop.
>
>Jon
>  
>

Simos