I am interested in embedding the Libertine font within an application at work, so that this application can produce documents using the Libertine font. The target systems will not have the Libertine fonts installed. I know I can distribute the font files along side the application, but it would be nice if that was not necessary. The Libertine fonts are licensed as GPL with a font embedding exception. The wording of the exception talks about embedding the fonts in a "document". Would embedding the font within the application (non-gpl) fall under the category of "document", or would the compiled binary now fall under the terms of the GPL (which my employer is not interested in)? Any help or pointers to the appropriate source (possibly at Redhat) to contact is appreciated.

On 09/19/2009 08:17 PM, Brandon Casey wrote: > > I am interested in embedding the Libertine font within an application at > work, so that this application can produce documents using the Libertine > font. The target systems will not have the Libertine fonts installed. > I know I can distribute the font files along side the application, but > it would be nice if that was not necessary. The Libertine fonts are > licensed as GPL with a font embedding exception. The wording of the > exception talks about embedding the fonts in a "document". Would > embedding the font within the application (non-gpl) fall under the > category of "document", or would the compiled binary now fall under the > terms of the GPL (which my employer is not interested in)? > > Any help or pointers to the appropriate source (possibly at Redhat) to > contact is appreciated.

Le Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:47:53 -0500, Brandon Casey <drafnel(a)gmail.com&gt; a écrit : > I am interested in embedding the Libertine font within an application > at work, so that this application can produce documents using the > Libertine font. The target systems will not have the Libertine fonts > installed. I know I can distribute the font files along side the > application, but it would be nice if that was not necessary. The > Libertine fonts are licensed as GPL with a font embedding exception. > The wording of the exception talks about embedding the fonts in a > "document". Would embedding the font within the application > (non-gpl) fall under the category of "document", or would the > compiled binary now fall under the terms of the GPL (which my > employer is not interested in)? > > Any help or pointers to the appropriate source (possibly at Redhat) to > contact is appreciated. > > Thanks, > -brandon If I don't misunderstood you, you don't plan to distribute your software, just to deploy it at your work. IANAL but it's as if you modify a GPL software and don't distribute the modified software, the new binary is not under GPL, so with the "GPL contagion" it should be the same : if you don't distribute the software, no contagion. No, we will be distributing the software to external organizations, though

Well none of us are lawyers here, and you should not rely on anything written on a public mailing list when there is a risk of a trial. And when the wording of a license is unclear, there is definitely one. If I had to embed a font in an application I certainly wouldn't start with a GPL font but look at Droid or another font with lax licensing (though the licensing would need to be double-checked too).

That, or ask the author of the font I selected for an explicit authorization.

(BTW I sure hope no one is going to try the embedding trick in any app Fedora ships, it's enough of a legal pain with detached files)