[Openfontlibrary] CC-BY(-SA) Fonts

[Dave Crossland]

2008/11/4 Christopher Fynn <cfynn at gmx.net>:
>
>> The CC-BY License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
>
> This license requires attribution - and for any *reuse* or distribution,
> requires that the original license terms must be made clear to others.
>
> Does this mean if someone uses a font under this license to print a book
> (which could be considered a kind of "reuse") that the original license
> terms must be printed or indicated in the book? Does there have to be an
> attribution?

This is an important point, especially since the FontShop's
http://fontstruct.fontshop.com webapp has enabled a lot of people to
make fonts and publish them with CC-BY(-SA) licenses.

Section 4 of http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode is:

-- 8< --
4. Restrictions. The license granted in Section 3 above is expressly
made subject to and limited by the following restrictions:

A.  You may Distribute or Publicly Perform the Work only under the
terms of this License. You must include a copy of, or the Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI) for, this License with every copy of the
Work You Distribute or Publicly Perform. You may not offer or impose
any terms on the Work that restrict the terms of this License or the
ability of the recipient of the Work to exercise the rights granted to
that recipient under the terms of the License. You may not sublicense
the Work. You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License
and to the disclaimer of warranties with every copy of the Work You
Distribute or Publicly Perform. When You Distribute or Publicly
Perform the Work, You may not impose any effective technological
measures on the Work that restrict the ability of a recipient of the
Work from You to exercise the rights granted to that recipient under
the terms of the License. This Section 4(a) applies to the Work as
incorporated in a Collection, but this does not require the Collection
apart from the Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this
License. If You create a Collection, upon notice from any Licensor You
must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Collection any credit
as required by Section 4(b), as requested. If You create an
Adaptation, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent
practicable, remove from the Adaptation any credit as required by
Section 4(b), as requested.

B. If You Distribute, or Publicly Perform the Work or any Adaptations
or Collections, You must, unless a request has been made pursuant to
Section 4(a), keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and
provide, reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing: (i) the
name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied,
and/or if the Original Author and/or Licensor designate another party
or parties (e.g., a sponsor institute, publishing entity, journal) for
attribution ("Attribution Parties") in Licensor's copyright notice,
terms of service or by other reasonable means, the name of such party
or parties; (ii) the title of the Work if supplied; (iii) to the
extent reasonably practicable, the URI, if any, that Licensor
specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not
refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work;
and (iv) , consistent with Section 3(b), in the case of an Adaptation,
a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Adaptation (e.g.,
"French translation of the Work by Original Author," or "Screenplay
based on original Work by Original Author"). The credit required by
this Section 4 (b) may be implemented in any reasonable manner;
provided, however, that in the case of a Adaptation or Collection, at
a minimum such credit will appear, if a credit for all contributing
authors of the Adaptation or Collection appears, then as part of these
credits and in a manner at least as prominent as the credits for the
other contributing authors. For the avoidance of doubt, You may only
use the credit required by this Section for the purpose of attribution
in the manner set out above and, by exercising Your rights under this
License, You may not implicitly or explicitly assert or imply any
connection with, sponsorship or endorsement by the Original Author,
Licensor and/or Attribution Parties, as appropriate, of You or Your
use of the Work, without the separate, express prior written
permission of the Original Author, Licensor and/or Attribution
Parties.


C. Except as otherwise agreed in writing by the Licensor or as may be
otherwise permitted by applicable law, if You Reproduce, Distribute or
Publicly Perform the Work either by itself or as part of any
Adaptations or Collections, You must not distort, mutilate, modify or
take other derogatory action in relation to the Work which would be
prejudicial to the Original Author's honor or reputation. Licensor
agrees that in those jurisdictions (e.g. Japan), in which any exercise
of the right granted in Section 3(b) of this License (the right to
make Adaptations) would be deemed to be a distortion, mutilation,
modification or other derogatory action prejudicial to the Original
Author's honor and reputation, the Licensor will waive or not assert,
as appropriate, this Section, to the fullest extent permitted by the
applicable national law, to enable You to reasonably exercise Your
right under Section 3(b) of this License (right to make Adaptations)
but not otherwise.
-- 8< --

So, the important parts as I read them (IANAL) are

* A. include the URL of this License with every copy of the Work You Distribute

It is essential to distinguish between a font and a typeface. "The
Work" is font software, not the typeface - so when you convert a font
to bitmaps (ie, print it) what you have is no longer a font. Any
vector outlines are "software" and count as the Work, though.

You tend to distribute fonts as font files, but also distribute them
'embedded' inside PDFs, or as vector outlines disassociated from text
("Convert to outlines").

Font files and PDFs and vector file formats like SVG all have metadata
fields in which to include the URL.

So this is fine.

* keep all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of
warranties with every copy of the Work You Distribute

Fine, as above.

* not impose any effective technological measures on the Work that
restrict the ability of a recipient of the Work from You to exercise
the rights

AFAIK, the DRM in the PDF format doesn't cover extracting embedding
fonts - FontForge has been able to open the fonts inside all the PDFs
I've thrown at it - so this is okay.

*  This Section 4(a) applies to the Work as incorporated in a
Collection, but this does not require the Collection apart from the
Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License.

Embedding a font in a PDF counts as incorporating it into a
collection, and this means documents that use such a font aren't bound
by the font's license, which is okay.

* upon notice remove any credit as requested

Okay.

* B. If You Distribute the Work or any Adaptations or Collections,
keep intact all copyright notices for the Work

Metadata strings, again.

* provide, reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing: (i)
the name of the Original Author for attribution in your copyright
notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means

Metadata strings, again.

* (ii) the title of the Work if supplied

Metadata strings, again.

* (iii) The works URL

Metadata strings, again.

* (iv) a credit identifying Adaptation (e.g., "Font based on original
Work by Original Author") at a minimum appearing in a manner at least
as prominent as the credits for other authors

This is tricky; if a document credits it photographers in its text,
probably its font developers should be credited too, along these
lines.

* [don't imply] endorsement

Fine.

* C. You must not distort, mutilate, modify or take other derogatory
action in relation to the Work which would be prejudicial to the
Original Author's honor or reputation.

This might imply you have to rename your font if you redistribute it
as a standalone font, because the author's original name is tied to
their reputation. The OFL makes explicit provisions for this, and
GPLv3 is compatible with such requirements I think.