From rfontana at redhat.com Tue Sep 13 02:40:02 2011 From: rfontana at redhat.com (Richard Fontana) Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:40:02 -0400 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts Message-ID: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> Hello, For those who don't know me, I'm a lawyer at Red Hat responsible for licensing issues. The Lohit fonts were originally supplied to Red Hat by Modular Infotech, under an agreement under which Red Hat could license out the fonts under GPL plus the FSF's font-embedding exception. Since that time, within the Fedora Project and Red Hat we have generally moved towards favoring a different open license for fonts, called the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (the "OFL"). http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=OFL_web See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal_considerations_for_fonts (noting Fedora's recommendation of the OFL for fonts). We have also found that, while a GPL-based license for fonts has some theoretical benefits, it is perceived by many as confusing to map the GPL to fonts, and we believe the perceived burdens of GPL licensing of fonts may be limiting adoption of the fonts at least to some degree. We anticipate that use of the OFL would broaden the user and contributor base for these fonts. Google in particular has for some time been interested in using the Lohit fonts, including all the improvements made by this project, in ChromeOS and (I believe) Android, but finds a GPL-based font license unacceptable. Google is willing to accept fonts under the OFL, however. Red Hat has recently amended our agreement with the supplier to allow us to retroactively license all the Lohit fonts under the OFL. Thus, all subsequent improvements made to the original fonts by the Lohit fonts project can also be licensed under the OFL. Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing under OFL in due course. Thank you, Richard Fontana Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel Red Hat, Inc. From samjnaa at gmail.com Tue Sep 13 04:18:59 2011 From: samjnaa at gmail.com (Shriramana Sharma) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 09:48:59 +0530 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> Message-ID: Good show. I have also been uncomfortable with the GPL for fonts. The OFL is far better and will facilitate my contribution to the project in future. On 9/13/11, Richard Fontana wrote: > Hello, > > For those who don't know me, I'm a lawyer at Red Hat responsible for > licensing issues. > > The Lohit fonts were originally supplied to Red Hat by Modular > Infotech, under an agreement under which Red Hat could license out the > fonts under GPL plus the FSF's font-embedding exception. > > Since that time, within the Fedora Project and Red Hat we have > generally moved towards favoring a different open license for fonts, > called the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (the "OFL"). > http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=OFL_web > See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal_considerations_for_fonts > (noting Fedora's recommendation of the OFL for fonts). > > We have also found that, while a GPL-based license for fonts has some > theoretical benefits, it is perceived by many as confusing to map the > GPL to fonts, and we believe the perceived burdens of GPL licensing of > fonts may be limiting adoption of the fonts at least to some > degree. We anticipate that use of the OFL would broaden the user and > contributor base for these fonts. > > Google in particular has for some time been interested in using the > Lohit fonts, including all the improvements made by this project, in > ChromeOS and (I believe) Android, but finds a GPL-based font license > unacceptable. Google is willing to accept fonts under the OFL, > however. > > Red Hat has recently amended our agreement with the supplier to allow > us to retroactively license all the Lohit fonts under the OFL. Thus, > all subsequent improvements made to the original fonts by the Lohit > fonts project can also be licensed under the OFL. > > Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can > relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to > the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing > under OFL in due course. > > Thank you, > > Richard Fontana > Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel > Red Hat, Inc. > > > _______________________________________________ > Lohit-devel-list mailing list > Lohit-devel-list at redhat.com > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/lohit-devel-list > -- Shriramana Sharma From psatpute at redhat.com Tue Sep 13 11:16:21 2011 From: psatpute at redhat.com (Pravin Satpute) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:46:21 +0530 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> Message-ID: <4E6F3B85.7050703@redhat.com> On Tuesday 13 September 2011 09:48 AM, Shriramana Sharma wrote: > Good show. I have also been uncomfortable with the GPL for fonts. The > OFL is far better and will facilitate my contribution to the project > in future. That's nice to hear. We are trying for this from long time and great to see that finally we can do it now :) Richard thanks for your efforts in this matter. May be in next step we can looks at liberation fonts licensing. May be we can wait couple of days here for taking feedback from community/contributors, then we can release Lohit with this OFL. Thanks, Pravin S > > On 9/13/11, Richard Fontana wrote: >> Hello, >> >> For those who don't know me, I'm a lawyer at Red Hat responsible for >> licensing issues. >> >> The Lohit fonts were originally supplied to Red Hat by Modular >> Infotech, under an agreement under which Red Hat could license out the >> fonts under GPL plus the FSF's font-embedding exception. >> >> Since that time, within the Fedora Project and Red Hat we have >> generally moved towards favoring a different open license for fonts, >> called the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (the "OFL"). >> http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=OFL_web >> See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal_considerations_for_fonts >> (noting Fedora's recommendation of the OFL for fonts). >> >> We have also found that, while a GPL-based license for fonts has some >> theoretical benefits, it is perceived by many as confusing to map the >> GPL to fonts, and we believe the perceived burdens of GPL licensing of >> fonts may be limiting adoption of the fonts at least to some >> degree. We anticipate that use of the OFL would broaden the user and >> contributor base for these fonts. >> >> Google in particular has for some time been interested in using the >> Lohit fonts, including all the improvements made by this project, in >> ChromeOS and (I believe) Android, but finds a GPL-based font license >> unacceptable. Google is willing to accept fonts under the OFL, >> however. >> >> Red Hat has recently amended our agreement with the supplier to allow >> us to retroactively license all the Lohit fonts under the OFL. Thus, >> all subsequent improvements made to the original fonts by the Lohit >> fonts project can also be licensed under the OFL. >> >> Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can >> relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to >> the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing >> under OFL in due course. >> >> Thank you, >> >> Richard Fontana >> Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel >> Red Hat, Inc. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Lohit-devel-list mailing list >> Lohit-devel-list at redhat.com >> http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/lohit-devel-list >> > From dave at lab6.com Tue Sep 13 12:47:02 2011 From: dave at lab6.com (Dave Crossland) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:47:02 +0000 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> Message-ID: On 13 September 2011 02:40, Richard Fontana wrote: > > Google in particular has for some time been interested in using the > Lohit fonts, including all the improvements made by this project, in > ChromeOS and (I believe) Android, but finds a GPL-based font license > unacceptable. Google is willing to accept fonts under the OFL, > however. > I consult for Google Web Fonts, and while I don't speak for the company, I personally believe switching to the OFL is a good idea, and know that the OFL will allow Google Web Fonts to make these fonts available conveniently as web fonts. Thanks, Richard! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dave at lab6.com Tue Sep 13 12:48:21 2011 From: dave at lab6.com (Dave Crossland) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:48:21 +0000 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <4E6F3B85.7050703@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <4E6F3B85.7050703@redhat.com> Message-ID: On 13 September 2011 11:16, Pravin Satpute wrote: > > May be in next step we can looks at liberation fonts licensing. > It would be good to get Liberation OFL'd since then the improvements Google commissioned directly from the original developer and published under the OFL as Arimo/Tinos/Cousine could be merged :-) -- Cheers Dave -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rfontana at redhat.com Tue Sep 13 22:05:37 2011 From: rfontana at redhat.com (Richard Fontana) Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2011 18:05:37 -0400 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <4E6F3B85.7050703@redhat.com> Message-ID: <20110913220537.GA11657@redhat.com> On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 12:48:21PM +0000, Dave Crossland wrote: > > > On 13 September 2011 11:16, Pravin Satpute wrote: > > ? > > ?May be in next step we can looks at liberation fonts licensing. > > > It would be good to get Liberation OFL'd since then the improvements Google > commissioned directly from the original developer and published under the OFL > as Arimo/Tinos/Cousine could be merged :-) I strongly support any effort to get Liberation Fonts relicensed to OFL. I suspect there isn't much Red Hat itself can do here initially, though. - RF From samjnaa at gmail.com Wed Sep 14 03:45:42 2011 From: samjnaa at gmail.com (Shriramana Sharma) Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:15:42 +0530 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110913220537.GA11657@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <4E6F3B85.7050703@redhat.com> <20110913220537.GA11657@redhat.com> Message-ID: <4E702366.3070108@gmail.com> On 09/14/2011 03:35 AM, Richard Fontana wrote: > I strongly support any effort to get Liberation Fonts relicensed to > OFL. I suspect there isn't much Red Hat itself can do here initially, > though. I'm sorry but I don't understand why. In case of Lohit, RH licensed it from Modular. In case of Liberation, RH licensed it from Ascender. Right? -- Shriramana Sharma From rfontana at redhat.com Wed Sep 14 04:04:29 2011 From: rfontana at redhat.com (Richard Fontana) Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:04:29 -0400 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <4E702366.3070108@gmail.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <4E6F3B85.7050703@redhat.com> <20110913220537.GA11657@redhat.com> <4E702366.3070108@gmail.com> Message-ID: <20110914040429.GA15057@redhat.com> On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 09:15:42AM +0530, Shriramana Sharma wrote: > On 09/14/2011 03:35 AM, Richard Fontana wrote: > >I strongly support any effort to get Liberation Fonts relicensed to > >OFL. I suspect there isn't much Red Hat itself can do here initially, > >though. > > I'm sorry but I don't understand why. In case of Lohit, RH licensed > it from Modular. In case of Liberation, RH licensed it from > Ascender. Right? Right. But just because one company is amenable to something doesn't mean that a different company will be. - RF From rfontana at redhat.com Thu Sep 15 15:43:20 2011 From: rfontana at redhat.com (Richard Fontana) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:43:20 -0400 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> Message-ID: <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 10:40:02PM -0400, Richard Fontana wrote: > Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can > relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to > the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing > under OFL in due course. Since no one has objected, and we have only heard positive statements about this, I hereby declare the Lohit fonts to be relicensed, as to all their past and present versions released by the Lohit fonts project, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. As to how to handle the indication of this change of licensing, I will leave that to Pravin and the project participants. Thanks, Richard E. Fontana Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel Red Hat, Inc. From dave at lab6.com Thu Sep 15 15:45:12 2011 From: dave at lab6.com (Dave Crossland) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:45:12 +0000 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> Message-ID: Hi, I kindly note that you don't specify if the Reserved Font Name restriction will be applied. Does this mean it is not being used for the Lohit fonts? Cheers Dave On 15 September 2011 15:43, Richard Fontana wrote: > On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 10:40:02PM -0400, Richard Fontana wrote: > > Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can > > relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to > > the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing > > under OFL in due course. > > Since no one has objected, and we have only heard positive statements > about this, I hereby declare the Lohit fonts to be relicensed, as to > all their past and present versions released by the Lohit fonts > project, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. As to how to handle the > indication of this change of licensing, I will leave that to Pravin > and the project participants. > > Thanks, > > Richard E. Fontana > Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel > Red Hat, Inc. > > _______________________________________________ > Lohit-devel-list mailing list > Lohit-devel-list at redhat.com > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/lohit-devel-list > -- Cheers Dave (Please note, this email is my personal opinion and does not represent the views of any of my consulting clients.) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rfontana at redhat.com Thu Sep 15 16:06:26 2011 From: rfontana at redhat.com (Richard Fontana) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:06:26 -0400 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> Message-ID: <20110915160626.GD13841@redhat.com> Ah, good catch. Assume for the moment that "Lohit" would be designated as the "Reserved Font Name"; I'll discuss with my colleague Pam Chestek. - RF On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 03:45:12PM +0000, Dave Crossland wrote: > > Hi, > > I kindly note that you don't specify if the Reserved Font Name restriction will > be applied. > > Does this mean it is not being used for the Lohit fonts? > > Cheers > Dave > > On 15 September 2011 15:43, Richard Fontana wrote: > > On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 10:40:02PM -0400, Richard Fontana wrote: > > Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can > > relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to > > the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing > > under OFL in due course. > > Since no one has objected, and we have only heard positive statements > about this, I hereby declare the Lohit fonts to be relicensed, as to > all their past and present versions released by the Lohit fonts > project, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. ?As to how to handle the > indication of this change of licensing, I will leave that to Pravin > and the project participants. > > Thanks, > > Richard E. Fontana > Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel > Red Hat, Inc. > > _______________________________________________ > Lohit-devel-list mailing list > Lohit-devel-list at redhat.com > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/lohit-devel-list > > > > > -- > Cheers > Dave > > (Please note, this email is my personal opinion and does not represent > the views of any of my consulting clients.) From dave at lab6.com Thu Sep 15 16:56:11 2011 From: dave at lab6.com (Dave Crossland) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:56:11 +0000 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110915160626.GD13841@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> <20110915160626.GD13841@redhat.com> Message-ID: Hi, On 15 September 2011 16:06, Richard Fontana wrote: > Ah, good catch. Assume for the moment that "Lohit" would be designated > as the "Reserved Font Name"; I'll discuss with my colleague Pam > Chestek. > The normal OFL copyright notice includes for each copyright holder their legal name, a contact URL and, ideally, an email to contact regarding copyright inquiries. I believe the first copyright holders are either "Modular Infotech" or "Automatic Control Equipments" but I have no contact details for them. Additionally, one of the fonts in the last release (lohit-fonts-2.3.8.tar.gz) has multiple copyright holders, lohit_ml.ttf, so permission will be needed from Hiran to make a 2.3.9 release under the OFL: $ wget http://rbhalera.fedorapeople.org/released/lohit/lohit-fonts-2.3.8.tar.gz; $ tar zxfv lohit-fonts-2.3.8.tar.gz; $ cd lohit-fonts-2.3.8; $ showttf */*ttf | grep Copyright | sort | uniq; Copyright (c) 2003, Modular Infotech, Pune, INDIA. 520913 - under General Public License \n \n Modified by Rahul Bhalerao. \n Contributions added from Hiran Venugopalan Copyright (c) 2003, Modular Infotech, Pune, INDIA. 520913 - under General Public License Copyright (c) 2003, Automatic Control Equipments, Pune, INDIA. - under General Public License $ Cheers Dave -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rfontana at redhat.com Thu Sep 15 18:33:23 2011 From: rfontana at redhat.com (Richard Fontana) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:33:23 -0400 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> <20110915160626.GD13841@redhat.com> Message-ID: <20110915183323.GB14545@redhat.com> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 04:56:11PM +0000, Dave Crossland wrote: > The normal OFL copyright notice includes for each copyright holder their legal > name, a contact URL and, ideally, an email to contact regarding copyright > inquiries. [...] Regarding the points made in your message: I do not see any obstacle to a release under the OFL. Here's what I'd use as the copyright part of the OFL notice, assuming we use the Reserved Font Name: Copyright 2011 Lohit Project contributors , with Reserved Font Name Lohit. - RF From rfontana at redhat.com Thu Sep 15 20:24:05 2011 From: rfontana at redhat.com (Richard Fontana) Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:24:05 -0400 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110915160626.GD13841@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> <20110915160626.GD13841@redhat.com> Message-ID: <20110915202405.GB15983@redhat.com> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 12:06:26PM -0400, Richard Fontana wrote: > Ah, good catch. Assume for the moment that "Lohit" would be designated > as the "Reserved Font Name"; I'll discuss with my colleague Pam > Chestek. I think at this point this is up to the project, but reserving the font name seems to be the standard practice, so I'd recommend doing that, in the way I suggested in my other message with my recommended copyright notice. - RF > > - RF > > On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 03:45:12PM +0000, Dave Crossland wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > I kindly note that you don't specify if the Reserved Font Name restriction will > > be applied. > > > > Does this mean it is not being used for the Lohit fonts? > > > > Cheers > > Dave > > > > On 15 September 2011 15:43, Richard Fontana wrote: > > > > On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 10:40:02PM -0400, Richard Fontana wrote: > > > Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can > > > relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to > > > the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing > > > under OFL in due course. > > > > Since no one has objected, and we have only heard positive statements > > about this, I hereby declare the Lohit fonts to be relicensed, as to > > all their past and present versions released by the Lohit fonts > > project, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. ?As to how to handle the > > indication of this change of licensing, I will leave that to Pravin > > and the project participants. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Richard E. Fontana > > Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel > > Red Hat, Inc. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Lohit-devel-list mailing list > > Lohit-devel-list at redhat.com > > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/lohit-devel-list > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Cheers > > Dave > > > > (Please note, this email is my personal opinion and does not represent > > the views of any of my consulting clients.) > > _______________________________________________ > Lohit-devel-list mailing list > Lohit-devel-list at redhat.com > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/lohit-devel-list From psatpute at redhat.com Fri Sep 16 05:43:46 2011 From: psatpute at redhat.com (Pravin Satpute) Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:13:46 +0530 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Relicensing Lohit fonts In-Reply-To: <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> References: <20110913024002.GA6359@redhat.com> <20110915154320.GA13841@redhat.com> Message-ID: <4E72E212.5080704@redhat.com> On Thursday 15 September 2011 09:13 PM, Richard Fontana wrote: > On Mon, Sep 12, 2011 at 10:40:02PM -0400, Richard Fontana wrote: >> Under the circumstances specific to this project, I believe we can >> relicense to OFL subject to any objection by any past contributor to >> the fonts. If there is no objection, we will proceed with relicensing >> under OFL in due course. > Since no one has objected, and we have only heard positive statements > about this, I hereby declare the Lohit fonts to be relicensed, as to > all their past and present versions released by the Lohit fonts > project, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. As to how to handle the > indication of this change of licensing, I will leave that to Pravin > and the project participants. Early next week will release all Lohit fonts with OFL. Regards, Pravin S > > Thanks, > > Richard E. Fontana > Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel > Red Hat, Inc. > > _______________________________________________ > Lohit-devel-list mailing list > Lohit-devel-list at redhat.com > http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/lohit-devel-list From psatpute at redhat.com Wed Sep 21 11:16:40 2011 From: psatpute at redhat.com (Pravin Satpute) Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:46:40 +0530 Subject: [Lohit-devel-list] Released lohit fonts 2.5.0 with OFL 1.1 License Message-ID: <4E79C798.1090300@redhat.com> Hi All, As most of you aware from our earlier discussion regarding relicensing of lohit fonts. I am releasing all lohit script fonts 2.5.0 with SIL OFL 1.1 License. I have updated License text and other file accordingly. See changelog of each script for more details regarding changes. I will rebuild lohit in fedora next week. It will be good if all distros build lohit packages with this latest release of lohit fonts with OFL license. Best Regards, Pravin Satpute