[Scribus] font management

[Marvin Dickens]

On Sunday 17 April 2005 04:33 pm, Bart Alberti wrote:
> "Gee whiz," as they say in the States, here! I guess there is no reason
> to use gpl fonts if the authors of the font even remotely claim the
> content, too! We might as well confine ourselves to the proprietary
> fonts where they explicitly disavow the content; after all you paid for
> the use up front! But then, why use gpl fonts for anything but personal
> copy? it makes no sense. Yes, the gpl has been enforced and recognized
> (don't jump to conclusions! please.); but that was for unambiguous
> software and the challenge here in the USA is by no means resolved even
> as to software, although we hear there is some low level court
> recognition. The gpl is sweeping in its terms; but it has not been
> definitively litigated, as this, obviously, is a whirlpool especially on
> this particular issue.
U.S. Federal courts are not "low level" courts: A sitting Federal Judge
has powers that go beyond any other office in American government.
As an example, a sitting Federal court judge is the only authority that
has the power to issue an arrest warrant for the President of the country
(If this is low level, what defines high level...?...). These same Federal 
courts have heard arguments from attorneys for SCO in the SCO vs. IBM case 
that claimed the GPL was not valid and therefore, not enforceable. The 
Federal Judge hearing the case immeditely issued a partial ruling stating the 
license was valid and therefore enforceable. Partial rulings are typically 
issued by judges to squash what a judge thinks is total bullsh!t. Regarding 
definitive litigation of the license, it would literally take hundred of man 
years to definitively challange and litegate all of the terms and conditions 
of the license: It's never gonna happen. 

Following the partial ruling, the author of nmap (one of the most important,
if not the most important network/internet security tool) revolked SCO's 
license to use and/or distribute nmap as defined by the terms of use of the 
GPL license in the event of a violation. Here is their press release:

SCO Corporation of Lindon, Utah (formerly Caldera) has lately taken to an 
extortion campaign of demanding license fees from Linux users for code that 
they themselves knowingly distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL. They 
have also refused to accept the GPL, claiming that some preposterous theory 
of theirs makes it invalid (and even unconstitutional)! Meanwhile they have 
distributed GPL-licensed Nmap in (at least) their "Supplemental Open Source 
CD". In response to these blatant violations, and in accordance with section 
4 of the GPL, we hereby terminate SCO's rights to redistribute any versions 
of Nmap in any of their products, including (without limitation) OpenLinux, 
Skunkware, OpenServer, and UNIXWare. We have also stopped supporting the 
OpenServer and UNIXWare platforms.

Here is the link to the press release:

http://www.insecure.org/stf/Nmap-3.50-Release.html for more info 

SCO took it seriously enough to immediately stop distributing the program. 
nmap is NOT some minor, unambiguous program, but an important security 
application that is valued by mega corporations and small businesses. 
Further, the SCO debacle is not a minor legal challenge made by a back water 
corporation using barely qualified lawyers. Both the FSF and the open source 
community as a whole view the case as an acid test of the license - So far, 
it's passed with flying colors and for the most part, the out come of the SCO 
thing is in favor of IBM and the free software community (Although, nothing 
is for sure until a final ruling).

Not being European, I am not as familiar with the rulings of courts in Europe
as I am in America. (This in no way trivializes European court rulings - I 
just don't have the information). But, I understand that the courts in 
Germany view the validity of the GPL in a similar light as the American 
courts.  

All of these things tell me that the GPL is well written and enforceable 
license.

Regards

Marvin.