Slashback: Cameos, Sculpture, Brimstone

Slashback this evening provides updates on recent Slashdot stories about BBC podcasting, the impact of GPL'd fonts on documents and programs which make use of them, Moore's Law, the much-anticipated "Hitchhiker's" movie, and more -- read on below for the details.

What if my ship is under the GPL, and it crosses the International Dateline? innocent_white_lamb writes "A participant on the Scribus mailing list has posted a reply that he received from the FSF regarding the recent GPL font-licensing discussion, i.e. when does your document become subject to the GPL if you use GPL licensed fonts."

In short, it's less of a worry than some people made it out to be in the earlier Slashdot discussion, but it's not a merely imaginary issue.

They should offer MP3 players shaped like tiny fish. ProsperoDGC writes "The BBC is offering more shows as podcasts. While only non-music programs will be available (due to potential copyright problems with music-based shows), the variety of content is representative of BBC radio's output, including news, interviews, documentaries, and sport."

Every year, the artist has to double the bottom-most layer. Qbertino writes "The online version of the German news-magazine Der Spiegel has a short photo-bulletin on a sculpture in the Heinz-Nixdorf-Museumsforum of Paderborn. The sculpture represents Moores Law, formulated 40 years ago by Intel co-founder Gorden Moore. It states that the amount of transistors on a chip doubles every 24 months while at the same time the size of the chip halves. The law still applies to this very day. Bulletin and thumbnail here (text in German) and a larger picture here. An impressive visualization."

Look very carefully for that fellow from 'The Office.' jangobongo writes "In an interview with SciFi Wire, Garth Jennings, director of 'Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', reveals some hidden in-jokes and homages in the movie. Among them: Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in the original TV series, can be seen and heard briefly as a Magrathean announcer - in 3D (get out your red & green 3D glasses!); the original Marvin robot can be seen in a queue of volunteers lining up to save Trillian; and in several places, head shots of Douglas Adams can be seen. Look for one, as the characters are flying through the planet factory, where Douglas' whole head is a giant planet. "It's quite lovely," says Jennings."

Popping trial balloons as they slink up the flagpole. bonch writes "Sony is now backpedaling on a recent CEO's slip of the tongue about a recently reported iTunes-like movie-download service. Steve Banfield, vice president of Sony Connect, says Sony is digitizing its movies and will allow some video clips to be used royalty-free for video 'mash' projects, but that Sony is not planning to to create an 'iTunes for Hollywood.'"

Dino alive, kicking, and annoying. Last May, we posted a story about the dino-shaped cam surviving under harsh conditions on New Zealand's volcanic White Island.

fraygos writes "Counting on the sulphur and high acid environment to deal to the creature has yielded little as Dino refuses to die. It's been almost a year and our darling dinosaur shows little erosion."

Comments

GPL Fonts Reply.

[Anonymous Coward]

[Scribus] Response from the FSF about GPL fonts
Louis Desjardins louis_desjardins at mardigrafe.com
Wed Apr 20 18:58:31 CEST 2005

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Hi,

I have contacted the Free Software Foundation, responsible for the GPL,
and asked them to clarify their position. Please find here my post with
the answers in between.

I post this with the consent of the author. Again, I understand this is
not an issue exclusively related to Scribus but I think the thread has
nonetheless drawn enough attention and interest so I would at least put
this reply on the list for all to read.

Louis

On Tue, 2005-04-19 at 13:28 -0400, Louis Desjardins via RT wrote:

>> A recent discussion about font management on the Scribus list
brought up
>> the following thread from one of the participant:
>>
>> "[...] it is note worthy to point out that using gpl licensed fonts
>> in a document makes the document a derived work of the font and
>> therefore, subject to the gpl."
>>
>> This assertion immediately raised questions. One of which being what
was
>> the source of that information. It became clear this issue is to be
>> considered as serious, as it is established on your website.
>>
>> The main concern is how a font can contamitate a publication, or to
what
>> extent exactly? In other words, what does that mean, exactly, for
>> someone using GPL fonts to create a document with a DTP app such as
>> Scribus? Are there different issues when the work is intended to be
>> printed and distributed in its paper form or when the same work will be
>> sent out or made available as a PDF, and whether this PDF has some
>> interactive functionnality or not (such as a form to be filled, or
>> external web links, internal links and the like), and whether the fonts
>> are embedded or not?

The situation we were considering is one where a font "program" is
embedded in a document (rather than merely referenced). This would
allow a document to be viewed as the author intended it even on machines
that didn't have the font.

So, the document file (a work) would be derived from the font file
(another work). The text of the document, of course, would be
unrestricted when distributed without the font.

We were unhappy with even this amount of influence for fonts, because
(a) it's rarely what font authors intend and (b) it's possible that some
applications do embedding behind the user's back. The situation seemed
to me to be similar to the case of the runtime libraries which GCC
automatically includes in its output (and which are licensed to permit
inclusion in proprietary software). So, I wrote the font exception you
see on our web site. It's experimental; we're sure it's not perfect,
and we welcome comments.

In the US, as I understand it, font faces -- that is, the look of a
font, are not copyrightable. But font "programs" (truetype fonts, for
example) are. I don't know how font copyright works in other countries.
So, printed documents should not be affected in the US.

>> As a user, do we have to worry about using fonts release under the GPL?
>> Can this cause a client's work (provided we use Scribus to layout his
>> job with GPL fonts and possibly along with commercial fonts, all this
>> work being done as a living and thus we get paid to do it) to be
obliged
>> to be released under the GPL? If so, why then use GPL fonts?

We wrote the exception you see on our web site explicitly to handle this
case. Note that you need to always check the license on your fonts in
any

Re:NZ: Geological AND Nuclear Sciences?!?!

[Koushiro]

Well, I'm no geologist, but I'd be willing to bet that the "Nuclear Sciences" part refers less to nuclear power or weaponry (as you point out, New Zealand is 'nuclear-free') and more to studying radioactive isotopes of elements for carbon dating and the like.

Re:Font faces not copyrightable?

[justforaday]

Actually, it's true. This is why Microsoft can ship a copy of Arial (a Helvetica ripoff made by Monotype) without paying any royalties to the company that owns the real typeface (Linotype). There's a decent writeup of the Arial/Helvetica issue here.

Re:I've got to say

[bhsx]

http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-browse?sh=1&butto n=Browse&dir=%2Fpub%2F.arch-download%2Fhhgttg&sort =type Though downloading from that site may break copyright applicable laws in your country... PCYL(Please Consult Your Lawyer)