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<DIV>In a message dated 11/3/2008 12:33:38 PM Pacific Standard Time,
ed.trager@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>>Hi,
FontFreedom,<BR><BR>> ... but I really want to have a non-copyleft<BR>>
openfontlibrary.<BR><BR>>Why?<BR><BR>If we are not using "copyleft"
licenses, what are you proposing to use in place?</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>Copy - Center licenses, Such as:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The CC-BY License <A
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/</A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>The MIT/X11 License</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Zope Public License (ZPL)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2><BR>>The whole reason for copyright law is to provide legal
protections to<BR>>authors of creative works, is it not?<BR>><BR>>We
now have enthusiastic communities of authors who recognize the<BR>>value of
giving back to the community, of sharing and remixing<BR>>creative
works. Licenses like SIL's OFL license for fonts have been<BR>>designed
specifically to help these authors protect their works so<BR>>that they can
do what they really want to do with them -- share them<BR>>with the
community!<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>NO! SIL OFL does not allow them to share their fonts in a way which allows
others to make modifications to a font, then re-release the font under the
license of their own choosing.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>The right to share a work with others is just as much a legal right
as<BR>>the right to not share a work. The license makes this
clear. And,<BR>>BTW, the original author of a work is, at least under
U.S. law as I<BR>>understand it, free to release his or her work under as
many or as few<BR>>different licenses as s/he wants. So, for example, I
could release an<BR>>original font creation under OFL for the community to
use, and still<BR>>sell it under a commercial license for customers who may
want some<BR>>form of paid support or other service in return for
payment.<BR>><BR>>So licenses like the OFL provide clarity in terms of
what authors want<BR>>to allow or disallow.<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Clarity, yes. A good idea, no.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>>"Public Domain" on the other hand seems to me very fuzzy and
unclear.<BR>>What legal rights are reserved or not reserved? It's not
clear to me.<BR>>What are the author's wishes? Heck, who even *is* the
author of a<BR>>"Public Domain" font? Maybe if we knew who the author
or authors<BR>>really are, we would find out that they don't want their fonts
under<BR>>"Public Domain" once they recognize the advantages and
legal<BR>>protections that copyright law is supposed to provide. I
therefore<BR>>personally think that "Public Domain" should be
discouraged. I<BR>>certainly would not put anything I created under
"Public Domain". I<BR>>would much rather put it under a license that
makes it very clear that<BR>>I want to share my work with the
community.<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>CC-PD : Creative Commons - PD is a specific and unified way to dedicate
works to the public domain.</DIV>
<DIV>It's what's been used with many fonts currently in the openfontlibrary.
Some people have said their (software, font, clipart, whatever) is
public domain, then attached conditions which are totally incompatible with
dedicating something to the public domain. Most public domain works do include
documentation of who the author(s) are. We should write extensively explaining
to people what it means to dedicate a font, or anything to the public domain.
</DIV>
<DIV><BR>>- Ed Trager<BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV></DIV>
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