Hi, Some of you may have wondered why I insist all the time on detached licenses and other boring bureaucratic stuff. Here is what happens when the font author dumps a raw font file with little context:
(10:43:38) LyosNorezel: nim-nim: ping (10:44:41) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: pong (10:44:47) LyosNorezel: nim-nim: what's the usual recommended course of action when "upstream" of a font only provides a ttf and an otf file? ie., no license or tarball 10:45 (10:45:25) LyosNorezel: by "no license" I mean no license file... (10:45:48) nim-nim: you can package the OTF file directly (10:46:15) nim-nim: however be aware that lack of detached license file often leads quickly to licensing mess (10:46:30) LyosNorezel: hmmm... (10:46:40) LyosNorezel: it's an OFL font... (10:47:12) nim-nim: see bug #455153 for a recent example (10:47:13) buggbot: Bug https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=455153 medium, medium, ---, Nicolas Mailhot, NEEDINFO , Review Request: asana-math-fonts - An OpenType font with a MATH table (10:47:19) LyosNorezel: nim-nim: should I just include a generic OFL license file? (10:47:58) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: nope, the rules ask to never include a license file upstream didn't distribute (10:48:40) nim-nim: we had too many cases of misunderstanding where a well-willing packager included a file which didn't correspong, in fact, to what upstream wanted (10:48:51) LyosNorezel: nim-nim: hrmm... that seems like it'd wind up a legal mess too complex to solve (10:49:34) nim-nim: also the OFL asks the font author to declare reserved font names in the license text (10:49:49) nim-nim: which is difficult when there is no license text (10:49:56) LyosNorezel: http://openfontlibrary.org/media/files/Nasenbaer/199 <<-- the font in question 10:50 (10:50:29) nim-nim: OFLB sucks for this, they don't make it easy for authors to uploads zips so they forget (10:50:54) nim-nim: the correct procedure in this case is (10:51:20) LyosNorezel: contact upstream? (10:51:20) nim-nim: 1. double-check via google there is no report the font did something legally bad (10:51:48) nim-nim: 2. if the font author declares it used some other font as source check this other font licensing (10:52:00) nim-nim: 3. package the font file directly (10:52:36) nim-nim: 4. ask nicely the author to re-release it in a nice versionned zip with detached license file and (if he uses fontforge) sfd sources (10:53:10) nim-nim: it will work on some upstreams (10:53:31) nim-nim: on others you have to package anyway, and wait till enough distros complain they change their practices (10:53:59) LyosNorezel: this is odd... (10:54:20) LyosNorezel: google indicates a second "upstream" site (10:54:22) LyosNorezel: http://xoops.widelands.org/modules/wfdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=13&lid=37 (10:54:26) nim-nim: this is real life 10:55 (10:55:08) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: if it's the same author take the most recent web site (10:55:18) nim-nim: this also happens pretty often (10:56:41) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: http://openfontlibrary.org/media/files/chemoelectric/208 shows that uploading zip files to OFLB is possible (10:57:36) LyosNorezel: nim-nim: that's another thing that makes this odd... one site is dated 9-27-07 and the other 9-28-07... both appear to be the same file (10:58:06) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: this is why the fonts SIG has pretty long packaging guidelines so packagers do not have to re-invent the same solutions to the same problems all the time (10:58:46) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: just means the author forgot to update one site, and did it the day after :p (10:59:15) nim-nim: or that he did both sites at once but that they're not in the same timezone (10:59:23) LyosNorezel: hrm... well... I think I'm gonna let this one go to someone else... 11:00 (11:00:28) nim-nim: I think you'll find out this kind of small distribution mistakes is rather commonplace (11:00:46) nim-nim: we just need to convince enough authors to mend their ways (11:00:54) nim-nim: so they serve as example to others (11:01:15) nim-nim: I used to do some java packaging before (11:01:29) nim-nim: java projects are much worse than font projects (11:02:07) LyosNorezel: it a distribution mistake that can cause some serious migraines for the users... and I have no interest in getting more migraines.. I get enough from the stress of my fast paced life (11:02:37) LyosNorezel: err... s/users/developers (11:02:49) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: the packager main job is to fix the mistakes so end-users are not expose to it (11:02:53) nim-nim: posed (11:04:40) nim-nim: even perl packages which follow rigid CPAN rules are not always packaging-clean (11:04:54) LyosNorezel: I like the font... but not well enough to expose myself to more migraines... this one is a definate pass 11:05 (11:07:59) nim-nim: LyosNorezel: your free choice (raw un-cooked irc log with PC-free echanges) Please take the time to release your fonts in distributor-friendly formats. Regards, -- Nicolas Mailhot
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