Re: [PATCH] gnu: Add cool-retro-term.

[Chris Marusich]

Petter <address@hidden> writes:

> What do we do about the fonts without licensing info?

Unfortunately, "no license" is not a free license:

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#NoLicense

"If source code does not carry a license to give users the four
essential freedoms, then unless it has been explicitly and validly
placed in the public domain, it is not free software."

The FSDG states:

https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-system-distribution-guidelines.html

"License Rules

'Information for practical use' includes software, documentation,
fonts, and other data that has direct functional applications. It does
not include artistic works that have an aesthetic (rather than
functional) purpose, or statements of opinion or judgment.

All information for practical use in a free distribution must be
available in source form. ('Source' means the form of the information
that is preferred for making changes to it.)

The information, and the source, must be provided under an appropriate
free license. We evaluate specific licenses and list our determinations
in our license list, with separate sections for licenses that are
suitable for software, documentation, fonts, and other useful works. If
such a work is released under a disjunction of licenses, the work is
free as long as at least one of its licenses is free; the system
developers should follow the terms of the applicable free license(s)
when they distribute and/or modify it."

The same page also has a section on fonts:

https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#Fonts

"The licenses below apply to an instantiation of a design in a computer
file, not the artistic design. As far as we know, an implementation of a
design is always copyrightable. The legal status of the artistic design
is complex, and varies by jurisdiction."

To ensure that this contribution meets these guidelines and respects the
freedom of the system's users, I think we cannot include a font for
which we cannot find an associated license.  If we can find a license
for the font and it is a free license, then we could include it.

-- 
Chris

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