[OpenFontLibrary] extraction issues

[Karl Berry]

    I'm interested in what the others here think, and not just the vocal few.

Since you asked, personally I think the FAQ entry is good.  I highly
doubt there is any legal basis for concluding that extracting a font
from a document somehow magically loses all copyright, but, as Dave
said, unless/until a lawyer actually considers the issue (or even more
definitively, goes to court), it all seems speculation.

Font extraction may be technically different than copying files, but
creating a PDF (or whatever) document for the express purpose of
"copying" the font is still distribution, it seems to me.

I can add an actual fact: I negotiated a license with Bigelow&Holmes
about TUG's distribution of Lucida (no flames about our distributing a
proprietary font, please -- long story) and we did our best to make this
distinction clear.  It's fine to use the fonts "normally" and distribute
resulting PDF's.  But a weird "document" that specifically includes
every glyph from the font, etc., for the obvious purpose of
"transferring" the font itself is not allowed.

I won't bother to quote our wording since it's not open to change at
this point and I don't want to start another long thread about it.  The
point here is that it was reviewed by B&H's lawyer -- so this kind of
distinction was blessed by at least one lawyer with experience in fonts.

karl