Ambiguous fonts license issue

[kenhys]

Problem

Recently, I've packaged GR framework for Debian official archive.
(I hope it can be available in Debian and derivative distributions easily)

During packaging efforts for Debian, I've noticed that there is ambiguous fonts license issue.

GR framework is licensed under MIT, but It seems that most of *.pfb contains
Adobe's non-free codes which license is ambiguous.

Are they explicitly licensed fonts which contains fragments licensed under Apache 2.0 by Adobe?

You can confirm it by t1disasm *.pfb which is provided by t1utils.

t1disasm lib/gks/fonts/CenturySchL-Bold.pfb

Expected

Ambiguous font license issue is resolved.

Additional Information

See https://web.archive.org/web/20070403175721/http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/opentype/index_ps_code3.html about the fragment.

It says:

The PostScript language code shown below is copyrighted by Adobe Systems Incorporated, and may not be reproduced except by permission of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

It seems that in some situations, it was licensed under Apache 2.0 [1][2], but I'm not sure that it is true for lib/gks/fonts/*.pfb.

To avoid license issues and follow the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), I've dropped explicitly these fonts from gr-framework package in Debian archive.

[1] https://udd.debian.org/lintian-tag/license-problem-font-adobe-copyrighted-fragment-no-credit
[2] https://wiki.debian.org/qa.debian.org/type1nondfsg

[kenhys]

I'm not digging in details, but I found that most of fonts are already packaged in Debian.
(not sure actually same version)

By the way, is CMUSerif-Math equivalent to CMU Serif Roman?

# showttf CMUSerif-Math.ttf |grep CMU
	 strlen=9  stroff=335	   CMU Serif
	 strlen=43  stroff=451	   FontForge 2.0 : CMU Serif Roman : 18-6-2009
	 strlen=15  stroff=527	   CMU Serif Roman
	 strlen=14  stroff=618	   CMUSerif-Roman
# showttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/cmu/cmunrm.ttf |grep CMU
	 strlen=9  stroff=335	   CMU Serif
	 strlen=43  stroff=451	   FontForge 2.0 : CMU Serif Roman : 18-6-2009
	 strlen=15  stroff=527	   CMU Serif Roman
	 strlen=14  stroff=618	   CMUSerif-Roman

showttf: bundled with fontforge-extras

gr-framework	compatible family	debian
CenturySchL-Bold.pfb	C059	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/C059-Bold.pfb
CenturySchL-BoldItal.pfb	C059	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/C059-BdIta.pfb
CenturySchL-Ital.pfb	C059	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/C059-Italic.pfb
CenturySchL-Roma.pfb	C059	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/C059-Roman.pfb
Dingbats.pfb	D050000L	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/D050000L.pfb
NimbusMonL-Bold.pfb	Nimbus Mono PS	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusMonoPS-Bold.pfb
NimbusMonL-BoldObli.pfb	Nimbus Mono PS	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusMonoPS-BoldItalic.pfb
NimbusMonL-Regu.pfb	Nimbus Mono PS	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusMonoPS-Regular.pfb
NimbusMonL-ReguObli.pfb	Nimbus Mono PS	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusMonoPS-Italic.pfb
NimbusRomNo9L-Medi.pfb	Nimbus Roman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusRoman-Bold.pfb
NimbusRomNo9L-MediItal.pfb	Nimbus Roman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusRoman-BoldItalic.pfb
NimbusRomNo9L-Regu.pfb	Nimbus Roman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusRoman-Regular.pfb
NimbusRomNo9L-ReguItal.pfb	Nimbus Roman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusRoman-Italic.pfb
NimbusSanL-Bold.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSans-Bold.pfb
NimbusSanL-BoldCond.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSansNarrow-Bold.pfb
NimbusSanL-BoldCondItal.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSansNarrow-BoldOblique.pfb
NimbusSanL-BoldItal.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSans-BoldItalic.pfb
NimbusSanL-Regu.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSans-Regular.pfb
NimbusSanL-ReguCond.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSansNarrow-Regular.pfb
NimbusSanL-ReguCondItal.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSansNarrow-Oblique.pfb
NimbusSanL-ReguItal.pfb	Nimbus Sans	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/NimbusSans-Italic.pfb
StandardSymL.pfb	Standard Symbols PS	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/StandardSymbolsPS.pfb
URWBookmanL-DemiBold.pfb	URW Bookman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWBookman-Demi.pfb
URWBookmanL-DemiBoldItal.pfb	URW Bookman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWBookman-DemiItalic.pfb
URWBookmanL-Ligh.pfb	URW Bookman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWBookman-Light.pfb
URWBookmanL-LighItal.pfb	URW Bookman	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWBookman-LightItalic.pfb
URWChanceryL-MediItal.pfb	Z003	/usr/share/fonts/opentype/urw-base35/Z003-MediumItalic.otf
URWGothicL-Book.pfb	URW Gothic	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWGothic-Book.pfb
URWGothicL-BookObli.pfb	URW Gothic	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWGothic-BookOblique.pfb
URWGothicL-Demi.pfb	URW Gothic	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWGothic-Demi.pfb
URWGothicL-DemiObli.pfb	URW Gothic	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/URWGothic-DemiOblique.pfb
URWPalladioL-Bold.pfb	P052	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/P052-Bold.pfb
URWPalladioL-BoldItal.pfb	P052	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/P052-BoldItalic.pfb
URWPalladioL-Ital.pfb	P052	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/P052-Italic.pfb
URWPalladioL-Roma.pfb	P052	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/P052-Roman.pfb

[jheinen]

Many thanks for the information regarding the fonts. We deliver the above mentioned font files in our GR distribution to make it easier to find and load them at runtime. The naming schemes and directory structures for the fonts are unfortunately not standardized in different Linux flavours / versions.

The CMUSerif-Math font was created manually and is an extended CMU Serif Roman font that contains the math symbols required for our LaTeX formula subsystem (gr_mathtex2).

[kenhys]

The CMUSerif-Math font was created manually and is an extended CMU Serif Roman font that contains the math symbols required for our LaTeX formula subsystem (gr_mathtex2).

Thanks,
so it (CMUSerif-Math.ttf) is licensed under SIL Open Font License v1.1, isn't it?
https://opensource.org/license/ofl-1-1

and additional question here (to build from source):

• How to reproduce to generate lib/gks/fonts/gksfont.dat?
• How to reproduce to generate lib/gks/fonts/mathtex2_offsets.bin?

[jheinen]

Thanks, so it (CMUSerif-Math.ttf) is licensed under SIL Open Font License v1.1, isn't it? https://opensource.org/license/ofl-1-1

Yes.

• How to reproduce to generate lib/gks/fonts/gksfont.dat?

It was created in ancient times with a Fortran program.

• How to reproduce to generate lib/gks/fonts/mathtex2_offsets.bin?

The same statement applies here as for the "merged" CMU font: handmade on the basis of experience.