Re: [Openfontlibrary] Re: [DejaVu-fonts] forming new maintenance team for MPH 2B Damase?

[Jon Phillips <jon rejon org>]

On Mon, 2007-02-12 at 19:20 -0800, Ed Trager wrote:
> Hi, Mark,
> 
> I wanted to reply to your question about why copyright?
> 
> First, I am not a lawyer.  So really you would be best to ask a
> lawyer, especially a lawyer familiar with FLOSS.  Maybe the FSF's
> lawyer, Eben Moglen, would be willing to advise on the benefits of
> "copyright" vs. "public domain" ...
> 
> It seems to me that if you copyright your original intellectual
> property in that font, that gives everyone a certain peace of mind
> because you've publically acknowledged your creation.  Those aren't
> just any glyphs picked up off the streets, they're your glyphs.  Then
> you can license them under whatever license you like.  You can still
> say "Copyright (c) <year> Mark Williamson.  Released under a license
> that allows you to do whatever you want with them."
> 
> Best Wishes - Ed

Well, if he created it in the US, then the original time it was created,
Mark, had an (informal) copyright on it, under US law. However, after he
declared it public domain, then its released into the PD.

That would be very similar, and hence would have done, if he is the
original author...

However, fonts are murky...soooo...sure, bring it up on FSF lists...have
fun :)

Jon

> On 2/11/07, Mark Williamson <node ue gmail com> wrote:
> >
> > I'm also just a bit curious as to why someone thinks I should claim
> > copyright of the font and release it under a free license.
> >
> 
> 
> > Cheers
> > Mark
> >
> > On 11/02/07, Jon Phillips <jon rejon org> wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2007-02-11 at 20:10 +1100, Paul Wise wrote:
> > > > On Sat, 2007-02-10 at 20:26 -0800, Ed Trager wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Wouldn't it be better if you as the original author claimed the
> > > > > copyright on it, and put the kind of license on it that you would
> > > > > prefer (BSD or whatever)?
> > > >
> > > > Sorry, there must be some confusion, I am not the original author, I'm
> > > > just the maintainer of the Debian package.
> > > >
> > > > > Then a group could form a project around your font just the same, but
> > > > > now would be able to respect your wishes as regards licensing with no
> > > > > ambiguities or future contentions?
> > > >
> > > > As I'm not the author, my wishes are pretty irrelevant :)
> > > > What I wrote before about licencing was just my own opinion.
> > > >
> > > > Mark Williamson <node ue gmail com> is the author and he released it
> > > > into the public domain, I'm assuming that is the licencing he preferred
> > > > for that font (he released another font MPH Yangon under the GPL),
> > > > although I haven't really discussed licencing with him. I'd suggest
> > > > anyone wanting to clarify his wishes wrt licencing please contact him.
> > > >
> > > > Apart from the licencing stuff, is anyone interested in being part of
> > > > the group to work on MPH 2B Damase?
> > > >
> > >
> > > Sure, we could host it as part of Open Font Library so we can all make
> > > revisions, derivatives, etc. Would that interest you all?
> > >
> > > This will help our community as well to get sorted with packaging and
> > > some other features...
> > >
> > > Jon
> > >
> > > --
> > > Jon Phillips
> > >
> > > San Francisco, CA
> > > USA PH 510.499.0894
> > > jon rejon org
> > > http://www.rejon.org
> > >
> > > MSN, AIM, Yahoo Chat: kidproto
> > > Jabber Chat: rejon gristle org
> > > IRC: rejon irc freenode net
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Refije dirije lanm�o paske nou posede pw�ato.
> >
-- 
Jon Phillips

San Francisco, CA
USA PH 510.499.0894
jon rejon org
http://www.rejon.org

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