[ft-devel] FreeType licenses again (was: ttfautohint as Service for OS X)

[Werner LEMBERG]

[CCed to freetype-devel due to its importance.]

I wrote:

> > http://www.forthehearts.net/werner-lembergs-ttfautohint-0-6-1-as-an-os-x-service/
>
> Nice!  This reminds me that I have to add the GNU exception clause
> to the license similar to compilers so that processed fonts don't
> inherit a GNU copyright...
>
> Any ideas how to formulate this?

and Dave Crossland answered this:

> I think the simplest thing is to advise people that if they use
> ttfautohint on a font that uses a license other than GPLv2, their
> font becomes subject to the terms for binary distribution of
> FreeType under the FTL, and therefore their distribution
> documentation must provide a disclaimer that states that the
> software is based in part of the work of the FreeType Team.
>
> The license says,
>
>     o Redistribution in binary form must provide a disclaimer that
>       states that the software is based in part of the work of the
>       FreeType Team, in the distribution documentation.  We also
>       encourage you to put an URL to the FreeType web page in your
>       documentation, though this isn't mandatory.
>
> Which means the font's Copyright string in the NAME table should
> have this string appended:
>
>     Portions of this software are copyright © <year> The FreeType
>     Project (www.freetype.org).  All rights reserved.

I strongly dislike that.  I don't consider a font which has been
processed with FreeType (or ttfautohint) a `redistribution in binary
form'.  The FTL has never been meant to apply on such cases.
Additionally, I want to make the bytecode created by ttfautohint
freely available.

It seems that we have a second issue (besides the patent stuff) which
should be handled in the licenses.  Fortunately, it should be rather
straightforward, namely to take the GPL exception and reformulate it a
bit.

Opinions?


    Werner