Hi Miriam, The various parts of fretsonfire have various licensing issues, as explained below. (Unfortunately my explanation is pretty long.) Is it ok if I discuss relicensing with upstream (I will CC the Debian BTS) or do you prefer to do it? Cheers, --Jason
== The current licensing situation == The fretsonfire licensing info is included in the fretsonfire tarball. There is also a copy on the web.[0] There are three categories of data in fretsonfire: songs, fonts, and miscellaneous data. The songs are non-Free: "Distribution, modification or commercial usage of the songs is not allowed." The font international.ttf is Debian-free. But title.ttf is non-Free[1] And default.ttf is non-Free too[2]. I am not sure about the miscellaneous data. I assume the authors wanted to license it under the full Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license legal code[3] which does not seem to be Debian-free[4]. == What to do about the non-free fonts == I don't know anything about fonts and Free Software, so I don't know what to propose. Can we get title.ttf relicensed under a Free license? Can we convert the title text into image format? And will things work OK if we substitute another font for default.ttf? == What to do about the rest == I propose we politely ask upstream if they could get the license for the songs and miscellaneous data changed to the GPL. This would make things very simple. If not, perhaps they could GPL the tutorial and miscellaneous data, and allow the songs to be freely used and noncommercially distributed by anyone. AFAIK this would allow the main game to get into main, and the songs to get into Debian non-free. It would also allow many other free Unixes to redistribute the game and the songs. I sincerely hope Debian, Fedora, and others will be able to redistribute the songs, as they are an important part of the game. (Many of the songs on the fansites are very difficult, so it is much easier to learn to play fretsonfire if the official songs are included.) == Footnotes == [0] at http://louhi.kempele.fi/~skyostil/uv/fretsonfire/dist/latest-src/copying.txt [1] Based on text inside the font file itself: /tmp/FretsOnFire/data $ strings title.ttf | grep -C3 created name post7(6V prep created by Astigmatic One Eye 1997 a div. of CAV OP Studios http://www.astigmatic.com/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mSeaweed Fire AOE [2] Based on text inside the font file itself: tmp/FretsOnFire/data $ strings default.ttf | grep copyright Typeface and data copyright 1996 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.Seriffic GrungeBoldMicrosoft Georgia BoldSeriffic GrungeVersion 2.05Georgia-BoldGeorgia is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. registered copyright trademark [3] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/legalcode [4] http://evan.prodromou.name/Debian_Creative_Commons_Workgroup_report -- Jason Spiro: computer consulting with a smile. I also provide software development services for businesses worldwide. Call or email for a FREE 5-minute consultation. Satisfaction guaranteed. +1 (416) 781-5938 / Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
