Bitstream Vera Fonts license

[Daniel Quinlan <quinlan pathname com>]

I'm very pleased that Bitstream has released these fonts under a
generous license and happy that Bitsteam and Gnome are cooperating to
make these fonts available.  However, I'm concerned about one of the
clauses contained in the license:

  The Font Software may be sold as part of a larger software package but
  no copy of one or more of the Font Software typefaces may be sold by
  itself.

I believe that renders the fonts non-compatible with the Debian Free
Software Guidelines as well as the OSI guidelines.  It could also cause
problems for open source projects should a font ever need to be removed
or distributed separately.  I can think of a number of possible cases
where a free software project would need to ship the fonts separately.
(It doesn't matter if they're actually making money because someone
might resell a free software CD or charge for it in some indirect way.
That's why the DSFG and OSI policies are written the way they are -- any
sale needs to be okay.)

Another potential problem for free software projects is that a free
software project could at some point in the future be forced to stop
shipping a specific font due to some legal action (patent, trademark,
copyright, look-and-feel, etc.) on the part of a third-party.  However,
I believe they would be prevented from removing that font by the current
license, even if they renamed all the other fonts.

The solution seems straightforward, though.  For example, Bitstream
could change the clause to read something like this:

  The Font Software may be sold as part of a larger software package but
  no copy of one or more of the Font Software typefaces may be sold by
  itself unless the fonts are renamed to names not containing either the
  words Bitstream or the word Vera.

I don't believe the current clause would actually prevent a mildly
determined competitor from redistributing the fonts, so it only limits
the acceptance of the fonts in the open source world.

Thanks for your time.

Daniel

-- 
Daniel Quinlan                     anti-spam (SpamAssassin), Linux, and open
http://www.pathname.com/~quinlan/   source consulting (looking for new work)