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Unintended Consequences of Using GPL Fonts
innocent_white_lamb writes "An interesting discussion has surfaced on the Scribus mailing list. Simply stated, it appears that using GPL-licensed fonts in a document makes your document subject to the GPL. There are a lot of consequences here, such as internal corporate communications. It appears to make the use of GPL fonts undesirable in almost any document." Yes, it sounds crazy, but the experimental font-exception addition to the GPL (linked from the discussion) lends the idea some credence.
Yeah, I like your line of thinking....
Consider also, the GPL does not force you to distribute to EVERYONE, only the people who have received binaries from you. This would be the obvious case when passing a text document around. Like all other GPL code, the receipients can consider if they want to pass it on further.
I really don't see this as a problem. There's no way that they could possibly mean that all your documents would need to be made available for everyone. Why, the only way that everything you write could be immediatly available for download by everyone would be to use a Windows machine!
i didn't know that documents had presensation as you stated, as in before the stimulation of a sense organ...
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See the article here a week back about what the GNU folks in charge of the GPL are writing into the next version. Combined with the new interpretation of GPL fonts they're coming up with, it's going to make even normal OSS proponents start to get really scared of the damage GNU can do to the community.