Re: TeX Licenses & teTeX (Was: Re: forwarded message from Jeff Licquia)
Boris Veytsman <borisv@lk.net> writes:
> > The CM fonts prohibit *all* modification--whether with changed names
> > or not--AFAICT. That makes them completely nonfree. It has nothing
> > to do with TeX, but with the CM fonts license.
>
> This statement is not correct.
>
> http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/cmbright/readme
>
> `Computer Modern Bright' is a family of sans serif fonts for
> TeX and LaTeX, based on Donald Knuth's CM fonts. It
> comprises OT1, T1 and TS1 encoded text fonts of various
> shapes as well as all the fonts necessary for mathematical
> typesetting, incl. the AMS symbols.
>
> Or read the history of EC fonts.
My AFAICT has been corrected; the cmfonts say that modifications are
permitted provided the filename is changed.
It should be noted that this condition is explicitly attached to the
source (*.mf) file, and doesn't impact at all the bitmap or the font
metric files.
In addition, Knuth has stated that the CM fonts are in the public
domain. If that is correct, then the notices at the fronts of the
source files can only be interpreted as requests, not as commands, and
therefore have no strictly legal import.
Regardless, I withdraw my hesitation about whether the cmfonts are
free. Since the cmfonts contain no restrictions whatsoever about the
names of the font metric or bitmap files, they are clearly free under
DFSG.
Now, Boris is going to insist that one must change the name of the
font metric or bitmap files, but alas, the license (if it is one at
all) doesn't require that. Indeed, Knuth's repeated statements that
the files are in the public domain might well have the effect of
simply reducing all his all-caps in the sources to mere requests.
Thomas
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