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Slashback: Cameos, Sculpture, Brimstone
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."
[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
In short, it's less of a worry than some people made it out to be in the earlier Slashdot discussion
Don't you mean:
In short, it's less of a worry than the Slashdot writeup, that I personally approved, made it out to be.
Sony is now backpedaling on a recent CEO's slip of the tongue about a recently reported iTunes-like movie-download service.
... why would Sony want to be the first big player in a market that has massive demand?
Really
Counting on the sulphur and high acid environment to deal to the creature has yielded little as Dino refuses to die
It would probably take a meteor.
If only he hadn't eaten them for dinner all those years ago...
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Just imagine how long that pink piece of plastic would last in a friggin landfill.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Upset about the Lord of the Rings? Angry about Hitchhikers? Sassy about about Sahara or exercised by X-men? To save time in future, please fill out this form first:
GFC/97X - GENERIC FAN COMPLAINT
I've just come back from seeing the long-awaited adaptation of the classic _____. It was terrible! It was full of glaring errors and unnecessary changes like
o _____ has the wrong [accent / hair colour / facial expression]
o _____ says _____, but in the original he actually says _____
o I always imagined the city of ____ would look like _____ and not _____
o the relationship between _____ and _____ just wasn't right
o leaving out all the [poems / songs / bestiality]
I'm also mad that they omitted the vital character of
o _____'s [brother / sister / father / mentor / sidekick/ turtle]
o the [barkeep / general / wizard] at the [inn / base / mystic Elven village of Elrohéremélossëhelin na Telperiën]
o second trooper to the left
and the entire backstory concerning
o _____'s rivalry with _____
o ____'s fear of [spiders / snakes/ heights/ death]
o the childhood of ______
o the entire lineage of ______, including births, deaths, marriages, divorces, illegitimacies, pets, and house renovations
This is a betrayal of _____'s vision. Why, the author must
o be spinning in their grave
o laughing all the way to the bank
Did the producers even bother to
o read the book?
o read the manga?
o watch the original?
o consult the fans?
o kill a goat and read its entrails?
I remember when I first encountered _____ at school. I
o laughed non-stop for days
o collapsed and wept
o immediately bought the rest of the series
o went through puberty
And it looked so cheap too! You could totally tell it was filmed in
o New Zealand
o Sydney
o Vancouver
o Toronto
o an Eastern European country with low wages and minimal labour laws
_____ was completely wrong as the character of _____. They should have cast
o Orlando Bloom
o Arnold Schwarzenegger
o Samuel L Jackson
o Jessica Alba
o Keanu Reeves
o Brad Pitt
o Kofi Annan
Sure it might be alright if you're
o not a fan
o didn't read the special small press issue with a limited run of 12 that came out in the early 80s and is OMGWTFBBQ totally brilliant
o an oxygen-breather
o have a life
but Hollywood totally failed to do justice to it! Why didn't they
o make a 17 hour version, so they could fit everything in
o make a trilogy, so they could fit everything in
o make a television series, so they could fit everything in
o film absolutely all of it and release it on the DVD as extras, so they could fit everything in
I'm sure thousands if not millions of fans would pay for that! In fact, we should
o write a petition
o start a campaign to raise money
I'm so angry that I'm going to
o post my opnion on a dozen forums, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o see the film another 10 times, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o queue up for the sequel, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o buy the DVDs when they come out, first release and special edition, complaining bitterly to anyone who will listen
o announce loudly that I'm going to transfer my allegiance to a fandom that deserves me, like
o Battlestar Galactica
o The A-Team
o Bubblestar Robot Whore Battalion Miyozuki