Upcoming bug mass-filing re. non-free TrueType fonts in main
Hi,
I have just completed a review of packages in main containing .ttf
fonts. This review will shortly lead to bug filings against each
package, but first, in accordance with developers-reference 7.1.1
I am posting my findings here for discussion.
The initial list was produced with 'apt-file search '\.ttf' to locate binary
packages with TrueType fonts in them. I then eliminated packages containing
only fonts, as I am hoping that the maintainers have already done the
necessary checking of licenses for the fonts they have packaged.[1] (If you
maintain a font package and are not confident that you have thoroughly
checked the licenses of all fonts contained within them, please do so.)
>From this list, I then took a sampling of fonts contained within the
source packages and ran 'strings' on them to look for copyright notices.
I also looked at readme documents contained in the font directories, if
present. As soon as I located one or two fonts that were verifiably
non-free, I moved on to the next package. Thus, the annotated list below is
*not* a comprehensive listing of all non-free fonts in these packages.
There may be other non-free fonts contained in them, but I simply didn't
have the time to check every single font.
I focused on known non-free fonts and for the time being have ignored
fonts merely listed as 'freeware' with unknown licenses. I was not
certain about whether the license for these 'freeware' fonts was
included elsewhere in the package -- but a font just marked 'freeware'
with no license attached is non-free as well. There are a handful of
these, included at the end. I will not be filing bugs against these
at this time.
Finally, it has been suggested that I file bugs against linda and lintian to
put some checks into place to scan fonts for known non-free licenses to
prevent this sort of mishap in future.
So now, the list of packages in violation of non-free font licenses:
icewm-themes
- contains 'chicago' (Apple)
caudium
- contains 'verdana' (Microsoft)
pygame
- contains 'bluebold' (Larabie)[0]
roxen2
- contains 'quadrang' (Larabie)[0]
enlightenment
- contains 'aircut3' and 'rothwell' (Larabie)[0]
epplets
- contains 'aircut3' (Larabie)[0]
feh
- contains 'helmetr' (Sun)[1]
gozer
- contains 'helmetr' (Sun)[1]
hatman
- contains 'casual' -- name is 'Frankenstein' in font file itself (Corel)
mangoquest
- contains 'tahomabd' (Microsoft)
phluid
- contains 'nationff' (White)[2]
tuxpaint[3]
- contains 'chicago' (Apple)
xplanet
- contains 'helmetr' (Sun)[1]
Here are packages containing ttf files marked 'freeware', a meaningless
term[4]. I have not yet determined if the licenses these are under are
DFSG-compatible, as it is not immediately apparent that they even have
licenses included (and as noted above, a licenseless font is non-free).
evas
- contains 'andover', 'cinema', etc.
libphp-phplot
- contains 'benjamingothic'
Finally, this package contains an original font contributed to the
project and licensed under the GPL (how refreshing!)
yudit
- contains 'yudit' an original, DFSG-free font
Footnotes:
[0] Larabie fonts are 'freeware' with non-free license and have been
made into non-free packages
[1] I have been told that the OpenOffice fonts are not free and were
pulled from CVS a short while ago. This puts ttf-openoffice
into question and any other package that contains a font included
in ttf-openoffice. I need confirmation of this before I can file
bugs.
[2] The copyright notice in this font is:
Freeware - Copyright [c] - Roger White - 1994 - All Rights Reserved.
[3] This is my own package, and is the one that prompted me to start
this search, as I had discovered it contained Apple's 'Chicago'
font. I then started looking for a suitable replacement font
under a DFSG-free license. I was disappointed to find that
virtually every so-called 'free' font I found failed the DFSG.
[4] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html#freeware
Ben
--
nSLUG http://www.nslug.ns.ca synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
Debian http://www.debian.org synrg@debian.org
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