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SIL OFL's Reserved Font Names and font rebuilds



Hi,

I would like to raise an issue that, in SIL OFL's FAQ section 5.9, font
rebuilds with non-exact build as the upstream need to avoid using
Reserved Font Names:

> "... all rebuilds which change the font data and the smart code are
> Modified Versions and the requirements of the OFL apply: you need to
> respect what the Author(s) have chosen in terms of Reserved Font
> Names."

  https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=OFL-FAQ_web
  (This website is not available to me at the time of writing.  Please
  check out Wayback Machine's backup at 2018)

However, in order to get font packages into Debian, our fonts need to
build from source, or, in our convention, "consider" TTF or OTF a
"preferred form of the work for making modifications".  

This would require us to change the name of some fonts built from
source, unless we have copyright holder's written permission.

We may decide from two consequences if the font copyright has Reserved
Font Names, and cannot be built exactly to the upstream (especially for
the fonts made from non-free tools and we are able build the font with
missing features or distorted shapes):

1. Upload the upstream font file to non-free.
2. Rename the font to avoid Reserved Font Names.  Renaming the font can
   create incompatibilities for files referencing the fonts.

I think it is discouraging font designers to open source the font, in
the way we require font packages to be built from source.

Do anyone have any idea for this?  Do we have to avoid fonts created by
non-free tools to be uploaded to Debian main albeit we can build the
font?

Best regards,
Yao Wei

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