On Tue, 11 Jul 2006, Robinson Tryon wrote:
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?
Oh, but you _do_ have a license, as Alan points out.
And the term "All Rights Reserved" simply means only the copyright holder has
the right to change the license's terms. You, as a licensee, cannot legally
do so on a whim or otherwise.
Marc.
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