I was approached a while ago to make a few comments on the stix font license and its possible suitability for inclusion in Debian. Obviously since I'm not an ftpmaster the comments were only my own opinion, but just in case the issue comes up again I've attached my analysis to this message along with the original license. Feel free to argue with either my analysis or point out additional issues in the license itself. Don Armstrong -- "A one-question geek test. If you get the joke, you're a geek: Seen on a California license plate on a VW Beetle: 'FEATURE'..." -- Joshua D. Wachs - Natural Intelligence, Inc. http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
User License
This proposed license represents the best efforts of the STI Pub
Companies to achieve a compromise between the requirements of our
contractual agreements with subcontractors and our desire for the
widest possible dissemination of the STIX Fonts. The license is being
provided at this time for your review (and comments). When the beta
version of the STIX Fonts is available for download, this license will
appear as a “click through” page that must be accepted in order to
download a free copy of the fonts.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1. Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of the STIX Fonts(tm) set accompanying this
license ("Fonts") and the associated documentation files
(collectively, the “Font Software”), to reproduce and distribute
the Font Software, including, without limitation, the rights to
use, copy, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell copies of the
Font Software, and to permit persons to whom the Font Software is
furnished to do so same, subject to the terms and conditions set
forth herein.
2. The following copyright and trademark notice and these Terms and
Conditions shall be included in all copies of one or more of the
Font Software typefaces and any derivative work created therefrom
as permitted under Section 3(b):
Copyright (c) 2001-2005 by the STI Pub Companies, consisting of
the American Institute of Physics, the American Chemical
Society, the American Mathematical Society, the American
Physical Society, Elsevier, Inc., and The Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. Portions copyright (c)
1998-2003 by MicroPress, Inc. Portions copyright (c) 2003 by
Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. STIX FONTS(tm) is a
trademark of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc.
3. The Font Software may not be modified or altered in any way, except
that: (a) the Fonts may be converted from one format to another
(e.g., from TrueType to Postscript), in which case the normal and
reasonable distortion that occurs during such conversion shall be
permitted; and (b) additional glyphs or characters may be added to
the Fonts, so long as the base set of glyphs is not modified or
removed.
4. If the Fonts are augmented pursuant to Section 3(b), the name used
to denote the resulting fonts set shall not include the term “STIX”
or any similar term, and any distribution or sale of the resulting
fonts set must be free of charge unless the work is distributed or
sold as part of a larger software package.
5. The Font Software may be sold as part of a larger software package
but no copy of one or more of the individual Font Software
typefaces that form the STIX Fonts set may be sold by itself.
6. THE FONT SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT, PATENT, TRADEMARK, OR OTHER RIGHT. IN
NO EVENT SHALL MICROPRESS OR ANY OF THE STI PUB COMPANIES BE LIABLE
FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR
OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM OR OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
FONT SOFTWARE OR FROM OTHER DEALINGS IN THE FONT SOFTWARE.
7. Except as contained in this notice, the names of MicroPress Inc.,
the STI Pub Companies and the companies/organizations that compose
the STI Pub Companies shall not be used in advertising or otherwise
to promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Font Software
without the prior written consent of MicroPress Inc, the STI Pub
Companies or the companies/organizations that compose the STI Pub
Companies, respectively.
8. This License shall become null and void in the event of any
material breach of the Terms and Conditions herein by licensee.
9. A substantial portion of the STIX Fonts set was developed by
MicroPress Inc. for the STI Pub Companies. To obtain additional
mathematical fonts, please contact MicroPress, Inc., 68-30 Harrow
Street, Forest Hills, NY 11375, USA – Phone: (718) 575-1816.
Comments about this license are no longer being accepted. The STI Pub
group reviewed all comments that had been posted regarding the terms
of the draft STIX Fonts license and agreed to several changes to the
license text. A new version will be posted after legal review, and an
FAQ that responds to the comments will be made available at the same
time.
3. The Font Software may not be modified or altered in any way,
except that: (a) the Fonts may be converted from one format to
another (e.g., from TrueType to Postscript), in which case the
normal and reasonable distortion that occurs during such
conversion shall be permitted; and (b) additional glyphs or
characters may be added to the Fonts, so long as the base set
of glyphs is not modified or removed.
The above clause fails to meet the requirements of the DFSG as it
explicitely forbids modification of the fonts, neither does it comply
with the FSF's four freedoms.
4. If the Fonts are augmented pursuant to Section 3(b), the name
used to denote the resulting fonts set shall not include the
term “STIX” or any similar term, and any distribution or sale
of the resulting fonts set must be free of charge unless the
work is distributed or sold as part of a larger software
package.
5. The Font Software may be sold as part of a larger software
package but no copy of one or more of the individual Font
Software typefaces that form the STIX Fonts set may be sold by
itself.
Likely to be DFSG Free, but problematic. (Also rather silly, as the
last bit of 4 is duplicated in 5.)
In any case, this license is unarguably not DFSG Free, so would not be
suitable for inclusion in Debian.
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