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| Ubuntu Font Family Licensing FAQ | ||
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| Stylistic Foundations | ||
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| The Ubuntu Font Family is the first time that a libre typeface has been | ||
| designed professionally and explicitly with the intent of developing a | ||
| public and long-term community-based development process. | ||
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| When developing an open project, it is generally necessary to have firm | ||
| foundations: a font needs to maintain harmony within itself even across | ||
| many type designers and writing systems. For the [1]Ubuntu Font Family, | ||
| the process has been guided with the type foundry Dalton Maag setting | ||
| the project up with firm stylistic foundation covering several | ||
| left-to-right scripts: Latin, Greek and Cyrillic; and right-to-left | ||
| scripts: Arabic and Hebrew (due in 2011). | ||
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| With this starting point the community will, under the supervision of | ||
| [2]Canonical and [3]Dalton Maag, be able to build on the existing font | ||
| sources to expand their character coverage. Ultimately everybody will | ||
| be able to use the Ubuntu Font Family in their own written languages | ||
| across the whole of Unicode (and this will take some time!). | ||
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| Licensing | ||
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| The licence chosen by any free software project is one of the | ||
| foundational decisions that sets out how derivatives and contributions | ||
| can occur, and in turn what kind of community will form around the | ||
| project. | ||
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| Using a licence that is compatible with other popular licences is a | ||
| powerful constraint because of the [4]network effects: the freedom to | ||
| share improvements between projects allows free software to reach | ||
| high-quality over time. Licence-proliferation leads to many | ||
| incompatible licences, undermining the network effect, the freedom to | ||
| share and ultimately making the libre movement that Ubuntu is a part of | ||
| less effective. For all kinds of software, writing a new licence is not | ||
| to be taken lightly and is a choice that needs to be thoroughly | ||
| justified if this path is taken. | ||
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| Today it is not clear to Canonical what the best licence for a font | ||
| project like the Ubuntu Font Family is: one that starts life designed | ||
| by professionals and continues with the full range of community | ||
| development, from highly commercial work in new directions to curious | ||
| beginners' experimental contributions. The fast and steady pace of the | ||
| Ubuntu release cycle means that an interim libre licence has been | ||
| necessary to enable the consideration of the font family as part of | ||
| Ubuntu 10.10 operating system release. | ||
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| Before taking any decision on licensing, Canonical as sponsor and | ||
| backer of the project has reviewed the many existing licenses used for | ||
| libre/open fonts and engaged the stewards of the most popular licenses | ||
| in detailed discussions. The current interim licence is the first step | ||
| in progressing the state-of-the-art in licensing for libre/open font | ||
| development. | ||
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| The public discussion must now involve everyone in the (comparatively | ||
| new) area of the libre/open font community; including font users, | ||
| software freedom advocates, open source supporters and existing libre | ||
| font developers. Most importantly, the minds and wishes of professional | ||
| type designers considering entering the free software business | ||
| community must be taken on board. | ||
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| Conversations and discussion has taken place, privately, with | ||
| individuals from the following groups (generally speaking personally on | ||
| behalf of themselves, rather than their affiliations): | ||
| * [5]SIL International | ||
| * [6]Open Font Library | ||
| * [7]Software Freedom Law Center | ||
| * [8]Google Font API | ||
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| Document embedding | ||
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| One issue highlighted early on in the survey of existing font licences | ||
| is that of document embedding. Almost all font licences, both free and | ||
| unfree, permit embedding a font into a document to a certain degree. | ||
| Embedding a font with other works that make up a document creates a | ||
| "combined work" and copyleft would normally require the whole document | ||
| to be distributed under the terms of the font licence. As beautiful as | ||
| the font might be, such a licence makes a font too restrictive for | ||
| useful general purpose digital publishing. | ||
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| The situation is not entirely unique to fonts and is encountered also | ||
| with tools such as GNU Bison: a vanilla GNU GPL licence would require | ||
| anything generated with Bison to be made available under the terms of | ||
| the GPL as well. To avoid this, Bison is [9]published with an | ||
| additional permission to the GPL which allows the output of Bison to be | ||
| made available under any licence. | ||
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| The conflict between licensing of fonts and licensing of documents, is | ||
| addressed in two popular libre font licences, the SIL OFL and GNU GPL: | ||
| * [10]SIL Open Font Licence: When OFL fonts are embedded in a | ||
| document, the OFL's terms do not apply to that document. (See | ||
| [11]OFL-FAQ for details. | ||
| * [12]GPL Font Exception: The situation is resolved by granting an | ||
| additional permission to allow documents to not be covered by the | ||
| GPL. (The exception is being reviewed). | ||
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| The Ubuntu Font Family must also resolve this conflict, ensuring that | ||
| if the font is embedded and then extracted it is once again clearly | ||
| under the terms of its libre licence. | ||
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| Long-term licensing | ||
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| Those individuals involved, especially from Ubuntu and Canonical, are | ||
| interested in finding a long-term libre licence that finds broad favour | ||
| across the whole libre/open font community. The deliberation during the | ||
| past months has been on how to licence the Ubuntu Font Family in the | ||
| short-term, while knowingly encouraging everyone to pursue a long-term | ||
| goal. | ||
| * [13]Copyright assignment will be required so that the Ubuntu Font | ||
| Family's licensing can be progressively expanded to one (or more) | ||
| licences, as best practice continues to evolve within the | ||
| libre/open font community. | ||
| * Canonical will support and fund legal work on libre font licensing. | ||
| It is recognised that the cost and time commitments required are | ||
| likely to be significant. We invite other capable parties to join | ||
| in supporting this activity. | ||
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| The GPL version 3 (GPLv3) will be used for Ubuntu Font Family build | ||
| scripts and the CC-BY-SA for associated documentation and non-font | ||
| content: all items which do not end up embedded in general works and | ||
| documents. | ||
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| Ubuntu Font Licence | ||
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| For the short-term only, the initial licence is the [14]Ubuntu Font | ||
| License (UFL). This is loosely inspired from the work on the SIL | ||
| OFL 1.1, and seeks to clarify the issues that arose during discussions | ||
| and legal review, from the perspective of the backers, Canonical Ltd. | ||
| Those already using established licensing models such as the GPL, OFL | ||
| or Creative Commons licensing should have no worries about continuing | ||
| to use them. The Ubuntu Font Licence (UFL) and the SIL Open Font | ||
| Licence (SIL OFL) are not identical and should not be confused with | ||
| each other. Please read the terms precisely. The UFL is only intended | ||
| as an interim license, and the overriding aim is to support the | ||
| creation of a more suitable and generic libre font licence. As soon as | ||
| such a licence is developed, the Ubuntu Font Family will migrate to | ||
| it—made possible by copyright assignment in the interium. Between the | ||
| OFL 1.1, and the UFL 1.0, the following changes are made to produce the | ||
| Ubuntu Font Licence: | ||
| * Clarification: | ||
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| 1. Document embedding (see [15]embedding section above). | ||
| 2. Apply at point of distribution, instead of receipt | ||
| 3. Author vs. copyright holder disambiguation (type designers are | ||
| authors, with the copyright holder normally being the funder) | ||
| 4. Define "Propagate" (for internationalisation, similar to the GPLv3) | ||
| 5. Define "Substantially Changed" | ||
| 6. Trademarks are explicitly not transferred | ||
| 7. Refine renaming requirement | ||
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| Streamlining: | ||
| 8. Remove "not to be sold separately" clause | ||
| 9. Remove "Reserved Font Name(s)" declaration | ||
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| A visual demonstration of how these points were implemented can be | ||
| found in the accompanying coloured diff between SIL OFL 1.1 and the | ||
| Ubuntu Font Licence 1.0: [16]ofl-1.1-ufl-1.0.diff.html | ||
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| References | ||
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| 1. http://font.ubuntu.com/ | ||
| 2. http://www.canonical.com/ | ||
| 3. http://www.daltonmaag.com/ | ||
| 4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect | ||
| 5. http://scripts.sil.org/ | ||
| 6. http://openfontlibrary.org/ | ||
| 7. http://www.softwarefreedom.org/ | ||
| 8. http://code.google.com/webfonts | ||
| 9. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#CanIUseGPLToolsForNF | ||
| 10. http://scripts.sil.org/OFL_web | ||
| 11. http://scripts.sil.org/OFL-FAQ_web | ||
| 12. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FontException | ||
| 13. https://launchpad.net/~uff-contributors | ||
| 14. http://font.ubuntu.com/ufl/ubuntu-font-licence-1.0.txt | ||
| 15. http://font.ubuntu.com/ufl/FAQ.html#embedding | ||
| 16. http://font.ubuntu.com/ufl/ofl-1.1-ufl-1.0.diff.html |
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| ------------------------------- | ||
| UBUNTU FONT LICENCE Version 1.0 | ||
| ------------------------------- | ||
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| PREAMBLE | ||
| This licence allows the licensed fonts to be used, studied, modified and | ||
| redistributed freely. The fonts, including any derivative works, can be | ||
| bundled, embedded, and redistributed provided the terms of this licence | ||
| are met. The fonts and derivatives, however, cannot be released under | ||
| any other licence. The requirement for fonts to remain under this | ||
| licence does not require any document created using the fonts or their | ||
| derivatives to be published under this licence, as long as the primary | ||
| purpose of the document is not to be a vehicle for the distribution of | ||
| the fonts. | ||
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| DEFINITIONS | ||
| "Font Software" refers to the set of files released by the Copyright | ||
| Holder(s) under this licence and clearly marked as such. This may | ||
| include source files, build scripts and documentation. | ||
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| "Original Version" refers to the collection of Font Software components | ||
| as received under this licence. | ||
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| "Modified Version" refers to any derivative made by adding to, deleting, | ||
| or substituting -- in part or in whole -- any of the components of the | ||
| Original Version, by changing formats or by porting the Font Software to | ||
| a new environment. | ||
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| "Copyright Holder(s)" refers to all individuals and companies who have a | ||
| copyright ownership of the Font Software. | ||
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| "Substantially Changed" refers to Modified Versions which can be easily | ||
| identified as dissimilar to the Font Software by users of the Font | ||
| Software comparing the Original Version with the Modified Version. | ||
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| To "Propagate" a work means to do anything with it that, without | ||
| permission, would make you directly or secondarily liable for | ||
| infringement under applicable copyright law, except executing it on a | ||
| computer or modifying a private copy. Propagation includes copying, | ||
| distribution (with or without modification and with or without charging | ||
| a redistribution fee), making available to the public, and in some | ||
| countries other activities as well. | ||
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| PERMISSION & CONDITIONS | ||
| This licence does not grant any rights under trademark law and all such | ||
| rights are reserved. | ||
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| Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a | ||
| copy of the Font Software, to propagate the Font Software, subject to | ||
| the below conditions: | ||
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| 1) Each copy of the Font Software must contain the above copyright | ||
| notice and this licence. These can be included either as stand-alone | ||
| text files, human-readable headers or in the appropriate machine- | ||
| readable metadata fields within text or binary files as long as those | ||
| fields can be easily viewed by the user. | ||
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| 2) The font name complies with the following: | ||
| (a) The Original Version must retain its name, unmodified. | ||
| (b) Modified Versions which are Substantially Changed must be renamed to | ||
| avoid use of the name of the Original Version or similar names entirely. | ||
| (c) Modified Versions which are not Substantially Changed must be | ||
| renamed to both (i) retain the name of the Original Version and (ii) add | ||
| additional naming elements to distinguish the Modified Version from the | ||
| Original Version. The name of such Modified Versions must be the name of | ||
| the Original Version, with "derivative X" where X represents the name of | ||
| the new work, appended to that name. | ||
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| 3) The name(s) of the Copyright Holder(s) and any contributor to the | ||
| Font Software shall not be used to promote, endorse or advertise any | ||
| Modified Version, except (i) as required by this licence, (ii) to | ||
| acknowledge the contribution(s) of the Copyright Holder(s) or (iii) with | ||
| their explicit written permission. | ||
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| 4) The Font Software, modified or unmodified, in part or in whole, must | ||
| be distributed entirely under this licence, and must not be distributed | ||
| under any other licence. The requirement for fonts to remain under this | ||
| licence does not affect any document created using the Font Software, | ||
| except any version of the Font Software extracted from a document | ||
| created using the Font Software may only be distributed under this | ||
| licence. | ||
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| TERMINATION | ||
| This licence becomes null and void if any of the above conditions are | ||
| not met. | ||
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| DISCLAIMER | ||
| THE FONT SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, | ||
| EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF | ||
| MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF | ||
| COPYRIGHT, PATENT, TRADEMARK, OR OTHER RIGHT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE | ||
| COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, | ||
| INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL | ||
| DAMAGES, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING | ||
| FROM, OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE FONT SOFTWARE OR FROM OTHER | ||
| DEALINGS IN THE FONT SOFTWARE. |
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| ---------------------- | ||
| Ubuntu Font Family | ||
| ====================== | ||
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| The Ubuntu Font Family are a set of matching new libre/open fonts in | ||
| development during 2010--2011. And with further expansion work and | ||
| bug fixing during 2015. The development is being funded by | ||
| Canonical Ltd on behalf the wider Free Software community and the | ||
| Ubuntu project. The technical font design work and implementation is | ||
| being undertaken by Dalton Maag. | ||
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| Both the final font Truetype/OpenType files and the design files used | ||
| to produce the font family are distributed under an open licence and | ||
| you are expressly encouraged to experiment, modify, share and improve. | ||
|
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| http://font.ubuntu.com/ |
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| Ubuntu and Canonical are registered trademarks of Canonical Ltd. | ||
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| The licence accompanying these works does not grant any rights | ||
| under trademark law and all such rights are reserved. |
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| Copyright 2010,2011 Canonical Ltd. | ||
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| This Font Software is licensed under the Ubuntu Font Licence, Version | ||
| 1.0. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-font-licence | ||
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