Copyright question (X fonts)
I'm packaging some ISO 8859-2 fonts for X. Most of them were of
course created by modifying original ISO 8859-1 BDF fonts from XFree
distribution or by creating ISO 8859-2 BDF fonts from Type1 ISO 8859-1
fonts from XFree distribution.
As I'm not copyright nor XFree expert, I'd like to ask if it could be
something wrong from the point of view of copyrights of original fonts
(not their modifications, they have clear copying and usage
conditions), i.e. if they can be freely modified in such way. Two
examples of such copyrights I've found in XFree sources (and which I
don't understand too much) are at the end of this mail.
May be it's more general question: If some packaged program uses
illegally (from copyright point of view) some code, is all the
responsibility on the author of such program or does Debian Project
illegal action too, when including it into distribution, even without
knowing there's something wrong with such program?
Sorry if these questions are stupid, but the Debian packaging manuals
say we should be very careful about copyrights, etc. So I want to be
sure. Thanks for any comments.
Milan Zamazal
IBM Courier - Copyright (c) IBM Corporation 1990, 1991
You are hereby granted permission under the terms of the IBM/MIT X
Consortium Courier Typefont agreement to execute, reproduce, distribute,
display, market, sell and otherwise transfer copies of the IBM Courier font
to third parties.
The font is provided "AS IS" without charge. NO WARRANTIES OR
INDEMNIFICATION ARE GIVEN, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED INCLUDING, BUT
LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
This is the LEGAL NOTICE pertaining to the Lucida fonts from
Bigelow & Holmes:
NOTICE TO USER: The source code, including the glyphs or icons
forming a par of the OPEN LOOK TM Graphic User Interface, on this
tape and in these files is copyrighted under U.S. and international
laws. Sun Microsystems, Inc. of Mountain View, California owns
the copyright and has design patents pending on many of the icons.
AT&T is the owner of the OPEN LOOK trademark associated with the
materials on this tape. Users and possessors of this source code
are hereby granted a nonexclusive, royalty-free copyright and
design patent license to use this code in individual and
commercial software. A royalty-free, nonexclusive trademark
license to refer to the code and output as "OPEN LOOK" compatible
is available from AT&T if, and only if, the appearance of the
icons or glyphs is not changed in any manner except as absolutely
necessary to accommodate the standard resolution of the screen or
other output device, the code and output is not changed except as
authorized herein, and the code and output is validated by AT&T.
Bigelow & Holmes is the owner of the Lucida (R) trademark for the
fonts and bit-mapped images associated with the materials on this
tape. Users are granted a royalty-free, nonexclusive license to use
the trademark only to identify the fonts and bit-mapped images if,
and only if, the fonts and bit-mapped images are not modified in any
way by the user.
Any use of this source code must include, in the user documentation
and internal comments to the code, notices to the end user as
follows:
(c) Copyright 1989 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun design patents
pending in the U.S. and foreign countries. OPEN LOOK is a
trademark of AT&T. Used by written permission of the owners.
(c) Copyright Bigelow & Holmes 1986, 1985. Lucida is a registered
trademark of Bigelow & Holmes. Permission to use the Lucida
trademark is hereby granted only in association with the images
and fonts described in this file.
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC., AT&T, AND BIGELOW & HOLMES
MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF
THIS SOURCE CODE FOR ANY PURPOSE. IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS"
WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC., AT&T AND BIGELOW & HOLMES,
SEVERALLY AND INDIVIDUALLY, DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES
WITH REGARD TO THIS SOURCE CODE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL SUN MICROSYSTEMS,
INC., AT&T OR BIGELOW & HOLMES BE LIABLE FOR ANY
SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES,
OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA
OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE
OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOURCE CODE.
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