[Scribus] font management

[Marvin Dickens]

On Sunday 17 April 2005 01:47 pm, Craig Ringer wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-04-17 at 13:47 -0400, Marvin Dickens wrote:
> > True. Also, it is note worthy to point out that using gpl licensed fonts
> > in a document makes the document a derived work of the font and
> > therefore, subject to the gpl.
>
> I personally think the GPL is a bit of a mess for anything but fairly
> traditional software ... how do you define "linking" for a font? (or a
> web service, for that matter). My own intuition in this case would say
> that the document wouldn't have to be subject to the GPL just because a
> font that it uses is, but I'm no lawyer.
>
> I'd be very interested in your source for that assertion.


GPL'ed fonts and their use in documents has been a source of confusion for
over a decade. The GPL license is very clear. In fact, the Free Software 
Foundation has thoughts on this subject which are relevant:

How does the GPL apply to fonts? 

Font licensing is a complex issue which needs serious consideration. The 
following license exception is experimental but approved for general use. We 
welcome suggestions on this subject -- please write to licensing at fsf.org. 

To use this exception, add this text to the license notice of each file in the 
package (to the extent possible), at the end of the text that says the file 
is distributed under the GNU GPL:

"As a special exception, if you create a document which uses this font, and 
embed this font or unaltered portions of this font into the document, this 
font does not by itself cause the resulting document to be covered by the GNU 
General Public License. This exception does not however invalidate any other 
reasons why the document might be covered by the GNU General Public License. 
If you modify this font, you may extend this exception to your version of the 
font, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete 
this exception statement from your version."

As previously stated by the Free Software Foundation, this is an 
"Experimental" addition that is NOT part of the GPL.  My source for this
is:

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FontException

In essence, any document that has GPL fonts embedded into it is subject to
the GPL unless an exception like the one above is included in the GPL license.


Regards

Marvin