'Public Software' in font files

Miles Newlyn
Miles Newlyn Posts: 245
edited August 13 in Type Business

I've a potential licensee that is asking me if fonts include “Public Software”, meaning free software, open source software, or copyleft software or any software licensed or distributed under any of the following licenses or distribution models

• Apache Software Foundation License

• GNU’s General Public License (GPL) or Lesser/Library GPL (LGPL)

• The Artistic License (e.g., PERL)

• the Mozilla Public License

• the Netscape Public License

• the Sun Community Source License (SCSL)

• the Sun Industry Standards License (SISL)

• Affero General Public License (AGPL), (i) Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL)

•any license or distribution agreement or arrangement now listed as open source licenses on www.opensource.org or in the Free Software Directory on http://directory.fsf.org

• any licenses or distribution models similar to any of the foregoing.


Is there any part of font file formats that could be said to include 'Public Software'?

Comments

  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,137
    edited August 13
    In a general sense, no. That is, to my knowledge, there is nothing within the SMTP (OTF and TTF) font format per se that is under this kind of license, meaning that it is possible to make a font that is not subject to any terms of the listed licenses.

    The SMTP font format is also readily extensible, however, so it is perfectly possible to include data either within one of the standard font tables* or in a custom table that might be subject to the terms of an open or libre license. Likewise, it is possible for font maker to release a whole font under such a license, eg. the GNU-like Open Font License (this is the most commonly used libre font license, thanks in large part to it being promoted by Google Fonts).

    * An example of open licensed content in a standard font table would be the MIT licensed layout model for Biblical Hebrew that Ralph Hancock and I published, which can be freely implemented in a GSUB table with the only requirement being inclusion of a relevant copyright notice in the derived font.

    So the short answer is that it depends on the individual font, not on the font format.
  • Miles Newlyn
    Miles Newlyn Posts: 245
    Thank you John, this is exactly the information I need.  :)

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