License of Adobe Utopia fonts

[Alan Coopersmith]

On 08/ 5/13 12:24 AM, Fabian Greffrath wrote:
> Dear Xorg developers,
>
> please forgive if this issue has already been brought up frequently.

As far as I know it has never come up before.

> In <http://xorg.freedesktop.org/releases/individual/font/> Xorg
> distributes the Adobe Utopia font in Type 1 format, which has been
> donated by Adobe many years ago. However, the license included with
> these fonts is ambigious and does not explicitely grant permission to
> modify [1]. Thus, this font is considered non-free e.g. in Debian.
>
> Later on, Adobe has donated the same font files to the TeX User Group
> with an improved license which clarifies their intent [2] and which is
> finally considered free. It includes, however, a rule that the fonts, if
> redistributed outside the TeX User Group, must not retain the original
> font name.
>
> So, is it true that taking over the new license for these fonts from TeX
> would on the one hand make the fonts "more free" by explicitely granting the right of
> modification, but would on the other hand also mean they could not get distributed under
> their Adobe Utopia names?

We cannot answer that - we are neither licensed lawyers, nor Adobe.

> Or are there any other reasons why the
> font-adobe-utopia-type1-1.0.4.tar.bz2 tarball distributed by Xorg still
> refers to the old, non-free license?

Because we were unaware there was any other license, nor that there would be
any reason for us to change.   Having read your reference, it seems we should
not change as that was an explicit license to the TeX Users Group and their
members, not an amendment to the terms Adobe licensed the fonts to the X
Consortium under, so wouldn't seem to apply to us.

If you'd prefer to use their copy of the fonts instead of ours, please do so
(assuming the license terms work for your use case).

-- 
	-Alan Coopersmith-              alan.coopersmith at oracle.com
	 Oracle Solaris Engineering - http://blogs.oracle.com/alanc