[Openfontlibrary] Public Domain?

[Jon Phillips]

On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 19:32 +0100, Jan Claeys wrote:
> Op maandag 13-11-2006 om 08:32 uur [tijdzone +0000], schreef Rob Myers:
> > Jon Phillips wrote:
> > 
> > > So how can there be a public domain or the equivalent in the EU and
> > > these other countries? There must be some idea of common content and/or
> > > cultural goods that these companies uphold, right? Or, is it just that
> > > they are considered free?
> > 
> > I don't think we have a positive conception of the public domain in the 
> > UK. We just have work with copyright expired, or work that cannot be 
> > copyrighted (due to its form or to being traditional). Government work 
> > is "Crown Copyright", not public domain like in the US.
> 
> Yes, I consider "copyright expired" == "public domain".
> 
> > So in the UK you'd have to say that you are waiving your copyright (and 
> > Moral Rights if you wish) rather than that you are placing the work in 
> > the public domain.
> 
> AFAIK in Belgium you can't really waiver (all) your "moral rights".
> 
> 
> The problem with putting fonts in the public domain in e.g. the US is
> that people in countries where this is not possible, might not have the
> right to use those fonts (it's not public domain in their country, and
> there is no license!).  Yes, "PD fonts" could maybe be non-free in those
> countries, and at least some companies (those large enough to have
> in-house lawyers ;) ) will shy away from using them.  So, IMHO, it would
> be much better to have some sort of a PD-like license, and get everyone
> to use that instead.

Is there anything like this that exists? Or, is the OFL the closest?

Jon

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Jon Phillips

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