[Openfontlibrary] Non-Copyleft Openfontlibrary

[Ed Trager]

Hi, FontFreedom,

> ... but I really want to have a non-copyleft
> openfontlibrary.

Why?

If we are not using "copyleft" licenses, what are you proposing to use in place?

The whole reason for copyright law is to provide legal protections to
authors of creative works, is it not?

We now have enthusiastic communities of authors who recognize the
value of giving back to the community, of sharing and remixing
creative works.  Licenses like SIL's OFL license for fonts have been
designed specifically to help these authors protect their works so
that they can do what they really want to do with them -- share them
with the community!

The right to share a work with others is just as much a legal right as
the right to not share a work.  The license makes this clear.  And,
BTW, the original author of a work is, at least under U.S. law as I
understand it, free to release his or her work under as many or as few
different licenses as s/he wants.  So, for example, I could release an
original font creation under OFL for the community to use, and still
sell it under a commercial license for customers who may want some
form of paid support or other service in return for payment.

So licenses like the OFL provide clarity in terms of what authors want
to allow or disallow.

"Public Domain" on the other hand seems to me very fuzzy and unclear.
What legal rights are reserved or not reserved?  It's not clear to me.
What are the author's wishes?  Heck, who even *is* the author of a
"Public Domain" font?  Maybe if we knew who the author or authors
really are, we would find out that they don't want their fonts under
"Public Domain" once they recognize the advantages and legal
protections that copyright law is supposed to provide.  I therefore
personally think that "Public Domain" should be discouraged.  I
certainly would not put anything I created under "Public Domain".  I
would much rather put it under a license that makes it very clear that
I want to share my work with the community.

- Ed Trager