Re: Upcoming bug mass-filing re. non-free TrueType fonts in main
On Wed, Aug 14, 2002 at 11:35:30PM +0200, Filip Van Raemdonck wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 02, 2002 at 01:16:14PM -0300, Ben Armstrong wrote:
> >
> > [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.
>
> Are you sure?
Couldn't be any more sure. After an extensive search of CVS and the mailing
lists, I asked two members of the OpenOffice project directly by private
email about the missing fonts, clearly identifying which fonts I meant.
This was the response, which Tom gave me permission to quote in public:
On Wed, 14 Aug 2002 10:07:26 +0200, Tom Verbeek <Tom.Verbeek@Sun.Com> wrote:
> Hi Ben,
>
> the fonts that have been deleted from CVS are actually not open source
> and have never been. We do not have licences that allow us to put them
> in an open source project. It was actually a mistake that the have
> been in the CVS module that is part of OpenOffice. They used to be
> reserverd for the commercial product StarOffice.
> In the meantime StarOffice also abandoned them because the quality was
> not sufficient.
>
> I believe the time frame these fonts were accessible in CVS was about
> 6 Months.
On Wed, Aug 14, 2002 at 11:35:30PM +0200, Filip Van Raemdonck wrote:
> They were originally released with OO, and because of that
> should be regarded as free unless the original release was a mistake.
Tom's response clearly indicates that it was a mistake.
> But
> when I RFPed them, they were cvs removed because of X server errors - not
> license issues. Although I can't even find them anymore now through the CVS
> web view. Not even in Attic.
> Although I also can't find anything in the OO bugzilla or the list archives
> about license problems.
No, there is no connection between these fonts' removal from CVS and the X
server errors other than they happened at the same time. Or at least if
there is a direct connection, I cannot find any trace of it.
> As a coincidence, I wrote down a number of URLs for font sites from an old
> magazine I threw away a few weeks ago and went hunting for free (as in
> speech) fonts. I've found some, but it was even harder than I thought it
> would've been. Expect an ITP soon.
Oh really? It would be *really* nice to include ITP bug#s in my bug
reports. Could you file these soon, please? I really hate filing these
bugs without giving people alternatives.
> I've also found one particular font author who had a good number of
> `freeware' ones, which allowed just about anything except modification. I've
> contacted him, and his initial reply was positive. I'll see how things
> evolve.
Excellent. Good luck in this endeavour.
Regards,
Ben
--
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