[OpenFontLibrary] [GFD] OFL-FAQ update draft and web fonts paper

[Victor Gaultney]

On 29 May 2013, at 19:07, Dave Crossland <dave at lab6.com> wrote:
> The ofl has no upgrade model, the authors have no resources to make an update, and believe the license provides for this situation.
> 

I agree that the OFL 1.1 serves us well for now. Because of the huge undertaking it would be to form a 1.2 and get it generally approved and accepted, and the pain it would cause to the whole FOSS font world, there would need to be a very compelling, long-term, philosophical reason to craft a new license (and model) and pay that price. Even for licenses where there is an 'upgrade clause' such upgrades are far from smooth. GPLv3 anyone?

Web fonts are important, but are (in the longer term) an ephemeral issue.  It is one of many challenges, past and future, that the OFL will face. At some point in the future there may be a need for a license change, but I don't see any reason for that now. OFL 1.1 handles web fonts just fine. RFNs and trademark issues are not trivial, but are more of an administrative issue than something that would require key conceptual changes in the model.

In 5, 10 or 25 years, were there to be some major shift in legal precedent or understanding or in technology that would render the current OFL a poor model, then a revision might be in order. But it would need to be a reconstruction and complete rethinking - an OFL 2.0, not 1.2 - and would require just as much effort by the community as adopting the OFL in the first place.

V
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