[Openfontlibrary] Public Domain?

[Dave Crossland]

On 14/11/06, Karl Berry <karl at freefriends.org> wrote:
>     Is there anything like this that exists? Or, is the OFL the closest?
>
> The OFL is about as far from a "PD-like" license as a free license can
> be, in my humble opinion.

I agree :-)

> There is really nothing like public domain.  It is unique, in that it
> explicitly disavows copyright.

AFAIK in the USA there also 'moral rights' that make it potentially unsavoury.

> I thought the distinguishing
> characteristic of public domain that made it interesting for OLIB was
> that it could be relicensed, because of the disavowal.  Any other
> license, however permissive the terms(*), will not have that feature.

Oh... - I thought that 'Modified BSD' code could be licensed under the
GPL, or say OFL?

> However, there are few substantial fonts released in the public domain,
> as far as I know.  Therefore I don't see that OLIB loses anything much
> by restricting itself to OFL only;

This is also a good point :-)

> the gain is that the incessant
> legal quibbling over the freeness of "public domain", in this forum at
> least, will cease :).

Alright alright :-) I want to understand everything that has happened
so far in the OFLB project, why those things have happened, and if
they are the best thing now or in the future. I'm planning to put a
lot of love into this project, and I don't want to get myself into
something I'm not happy with.

I thank you all for your patience while I get my head round these
issues, and for taking the time to debate them openly with me! :-)

-- 
Regards,
Dave