Package: ttf-mph-2b-damase Version: 001.000-1 Severity: serious Justification: contains non-free glyphs
The attached messages indicate that some of the glyphs in ttf-mph-2b-damase will need to be stripped. This may or may not be possible with the latest fontforge: (12:07:52) pabs: oh, yeah, I should probably update the debian package to remove the Sylheti glyphs, are you able to do that and send me a new copy? I'd have to do it with fontforge and I don't know if it would be able to preserve all the font features you used (12:08:49) mark: I don't have a font application that supports plane 1, so it would ruin the font if I did it. I had to send it out to James Kass for the p1 support. (12:09:03) pabs: oh, hmm (12:09:21) mark: But I didn't use any special features that would be ruined, I don't think (12:10:29) pabs: ok, well, I'll try with fontforge, we'll see though :) (12:10:58) mark: ok -- bye, pabs http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
--- Begin Message ---Everyone - > Mark Williamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> is the author and he released it > into the public domain... Far be it from me to discourage development of free fonts, but I don't think Mark has the rights to release it into the public domain. In a quick look at the font, I saw many font styles I recognised - including ones that are not currently under free licenses. For example, the Sylheti Nagri glyphs are an identical copy (node for node, coordinate for coordinate) of the Sylheti font available from http://www.sylheti.org.uk/page5.html. That font is freeware, but is not under public domain, or any FLOSS license. I hate to sound like the font police, but this font is not legal, as it contains copyrighted material from other fonts without any acknowledgement. I'm not at all implying that Mark intentionally intended to breach copyright, as it is particularly common in South Asia to find fonts that have been copied with the copyright stripped out, replaced with public domain. Mark may have copied glyphs from one of those fonts. I just think someone ought to do a little more research to be sure that all the contents are truly free. It may even be that some of Mark's sources could be convinced to release OFL versions of their fonts! If we want to get the typographic community's support behind free and open source fonts, we have to prove to them that we honour copyright. Otherwise all our arguments fall flat, and designers will run from FLOSS and the OFLB like the plague. V. ----------------- Victor Gaultney SIL International
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--- Begin Message ---On Sun, 2007-02-11 at 15:17 +0000, Victor Gaultney wrote: > > Mark Williamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> is the author and he released it > > into the public domain... > > Far be it from me to discourage development of free fonts, but I don't think > Mark has the rights to release it into the public domain. (11:53:52) mark: I don't remember copying that font. I suppose it's possible, I know I used it for information about the script (11:54:32) mark: But if necessary, Sylheti can be removed from the font, or new glyphs can be designed. Simply "recognizing font styles" doesn't imply any sort of breach of copyright (11:56:30) mark: The Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic glyphs are all original, as are the Glagolitic, Gothic, Linear B, Cypriot, because I actually still have the designs for all of those (11:57:01) mark: The other ones, I'd have to check to make sure (11:57:06) mark: But I was sure the entire font was my work (11:57:25) mark: One sec (11:58:38) mark: ok... the arabic glyphs are original, but in most apps if you type them it will show up as your system's default arabic font because there aren't OpenType tables for it (12:02:32) mark: but after a cursory look, it appears eveything's original (most of the ranges are typified by uneven contours because I didn't "finish" the glyph outlines off) (12:02:41) mark: except for Sylheti (12:03:46) pabs: thanks for the info, I'll let you know of any more questions (12:03:50) mark: ok :-) > If we want to get the typographic community's support behind free and open > source fonts, we have to prove to them that we honour copyright. Otherwise > all our arguments fall flat, and designers will run from FLOSS and the OFLB > like the plague. Indeed. -- bye, pabs http://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
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