[OpenFontLibrary] Adobe Font licenses

[Nicolas Spalinger]

Ben Laenen wrote:
> On Tuesday 11 November 2008, H wrote:
>> There is no issue for selling a modified thing under CC BY-SA. Only
>> in CC BY-NC-SA, there we have to ask the owner about it. Its hence
>> not something like CC BY-SA. The term 'without fees' - i believe that
>> the license allows only redistribution for free of cost, even with
>> modifications. Other than that all, it looks like the DeJaVu
>> license.[1]
> 
> With DejaVu you can sell it as part of a "larger" software package (just 
> like the OFL), whereas this license doesn't seem to allow that.
> 
> btw, "larger software package"... If fonts are software, does that mean 
> that since we added glyphs to Vera in DejaVu that it would be valid to 
> sell DejaVu by itself?

That would be a big stretch of the intended definition.
There is still a difference between adding to / merging elements with an
existing font and bundling that font with software like a word
processor. Something like the difference between "derived work" and
"mere aggregation".

This Adobe font license is project and organisation-specific and,
although it has some good elements, it still carries grey areas in need
of clarification like the resellability of the font or the status of
derivatives. It has provisions to protect the reputation and name of the
supporting organisations but nothing very clear about not reusing the
name of the font itself when modifying/branching. Nothing to prevent
name collisions and user confusion. (besides something about a trademark
grant with images of the file ??). And of course the licensing
proliferation problem...

BTW, some people at Adobe reviewed the OFL and found the model good...
(look for Thomas Phinney's answer on ttp://www.typophile.com/node/16620)
AFAICT if they considered it for Utopia. They may consider it for some
other projects.

> Greetings
> Ben

Cheers,

-- 
Nicolas Spalinger, NRSI volunteer
http://planet.open-fonts.org


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