Re: bitstream vera fonts/licensing

[Nicolas Mailhot <nicolas mailhot laposte net>]

Le mardi 14 novembre 2006 à 11:48 -0800, lists_gnome overwhelm net a
écrit :

> I've seen the following page: http://www.gnome.org/fonts/
> 
> Still, I don't fully understand: What license governs the use of the
> Bitstream Vera font? 

The section in italic under "Copyright" is the font license

> (is copyright on the above-referenced page all there is to it?)

To the best of my knowledge, yes. This page has been unchanged for quite
a long time and Bitstream never had any problem with it.

> Is it the GPL-style license? 

No, it's a one-of-a kind "Bitream Vera" license. Basically you can do
whatever you want with the font as long as it's renamed (if you tweak
it) and you don't try to use it in a "font collection" (a media full of
raw fonts, Bitstream's core business)

Experience proved that the renaming part is a bother. Since Bitstream is
not fixing its font nor blessing fixes by others Vera effectively
fossilized. Several Vera forks (enhanced fonts renamed to respect the
license) are alive, the biggest of which is dejavu (dejavu.sf.net)

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot