On 7/11/06, Marc Aurele La France <tsi@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, 11 Jul 2006, Robinson Tryon wrote: > I've been working on a program that includes the Adobe Times font from > the debian package x11/xfonts-75dpi. That package is assembled from > xfree86 sources. > Several other fonts that come from xfree86 have explict copyright > permissions -- for example the Bitstream Charter fonts, but I have > been unable to find any record of Adobe giving a license for their > 'Times' fonts. I asked debian-legal, but no one could provide me with > solid information about the upstream licensing. > The font files themselves have "all-rights-reserved" copyright notices > for Adobe and Digital: > Copyright (c) 1984, 1987 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. > Copyright (c) 1988, 1991 Digital Equipment Corporation. All Rights > Reserved. Times is a trademark of Linotype-Hell AG and/or its > subsidiaries. > The upstream license' section of the COPYRIGHT file for the > xfonts-75dpi package does not appear to contain any pertinent > information, other than mentioning Adobe's name in a long list of > contributors. > Does anyone know where I could find the explicit license from > Adobe/Digital for these fonts to be included in Xfree86? You are confusing copyright and license.
You're right -- I should have written that more clearly.
The license says how the work can be redistributed. The copyright says who has the authority to grant such a license.
Agreed.
Rest assured that XFree86 does not include any font that cannot be freely redistributed. And by "freely redistributed", I mean without any incumberances whatsoever.
But the font files say (to paraphrase) "copyright Adobe/Digital, all rights reserved". No one has been able to produce a license from Adobe that indicates that the Adobe Times fonts can be freely distributed. Other fonts included in XFree86 include a license from the copyright owner of the font. For example, here is the one for Bitstream Charter: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bitstream Type 1 fonts are under the following license: (c) Copyright 1989-1992, Bitstream Inc., Cambridge, MA. You are hereby granted permission under all Bitstream propriety rights to use, copy, modify, sublicense, sell, and redistribute the 4 Bitstream Charter (r) Type 1 outline fonts and the 4 Courier Type 1 outline fonts for any purpose and without restriction; provided, that this notice is left intact on all copies of such fonts and that Bitstream's trademark is acknowledged as shown below on all unmodified copies of the 4 Charter Type 1 fonts. BITSTREAM CHARTER is a registered trademark of Bitstream Inc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If I don't have a license for the Adobe Times font, then I can't (legally) distribute those files. Right? -- Robinson Tryon _______________________________________________ Devel@xxxxxxxxxxx http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/devel
