Re: xft and xfree86-truetype-fonts
>>> Does anyone know if there has ever been attempt to have Bigelow and
>>> Holmes licensing changed so that it fits dfsg?
>> Yes, both by me and Branden.
> What was the result of your attempts? Did they reject the idea?
I'm CC-ing this to Charles Bigelow in case I misrepresent something.
As usual, I'll mention that what follows is my private perception of
what happened, and does not, except where mentioned otherwise,
represent an official position of XFree86.
When we (XFree86) negociated the Luxi license with B&H, our main
priority was to guarantee unlimited, no strings attached
redistribuability of the fonts, and B&H proved willing to listen and
met all of our desiderata. We did agree, though, that modification of
the fonts could be forbidden on the assumption that professionally
designed fonts do not need bug fixing.
Charles Bigelow wanted to make sure he could control the artistic
integrity of his fonts. Now this is something I can most definitely
sympathise with: if you've ever published any Free software, you
surely have the experience of having your carefully tuned, highly
elegant algorithm made into pulp by some eejit from RedHat.
The official position of XFree86 remains that we (as an organisation)
are perfectly happy with the Luxi license. However, I (as a private
individual) also sympathise with the point of view that Branden
expressed in his letter to Charles, namely that an artist's need to
control his baby is no different to that of a programmer, and that
somehow we (programmers) do manage to work with the X/MIT and BSD
licenses. Branden also claimed in his letter that undesired
modification of software seldom happens, but this is something that I
believe to be untrue.
Branden's letter was fairly long, and Charles did reply, but only to
say that he'll read it in full when he has some free time. As usually
happens in such situations, the free time never materialised.
I'll mention once again that the official position of XFree86 remains
that we are perfectly happy with the Luxi license and that if you
decide to contact B&H you must make it perfectly clear that you are
not speeking on behalf of the XFree86 Project.
I hope this clarifies matters,
Juliusz
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