Debian Bug report logs - #406530
tetex-base: unclear license and origin situation of Base 35 PS fonts

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Message #5 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Frank Küster <[email protected]>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <[email protected]>

Subject: tetex-base: unclear license and origin situation of Base 35 PS fonts

Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 17:09:18 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Package: tetex-base
Version: 3.0-16bpo1
Severity: important

Let's just gather information in this bug.  I have written a tiny
script:

[searchbase35 (text/plain, inline)]

#!/bin/bash

package=$1;

files=`grep '^[[:space:]]*texmf' debian/tpm/courier.tpm`

wgetFile="./wgetFile" # insecure, but who cares?

for longfile in $files; do
  file=`basename $longfile`
  queryURL="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ctan-index?$file"
  wget -O $wgetFile $queryURL
  queryResult=`sed -n -e "/^[<]tt[>][[:digit:]]/ {s@.*$file[\"][>]\(.*$file\)[<]/a[>][<]BR[>]@\1@; p}" $wgetFile` 
  resultLines=`echo $queryResult | wc -w`

  if [ "$resultLines" -eq 1 ]; then
    echo "$file: $queryResult" 
  elif [ "$resultLines" -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "$file: No hits"
  else
    echo "File: multiple hits:"
    echo "$queryResult"
  fi
done

[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]

which gives output like this, for courier.tpm:

pcrb8a.afm: fonts/psfonts/psnfss-source/courier/pcrb8a.afm
pcrbo8a.afm: fonts/psfonts/psnfss-source/courier/pcrbo8a.afm
File: multiple hits:
fonts/psfonts/psnfss-source/courier/pcrr8a.afm
macros/latex/contrib/pslatex/afm/pcrr8a.afm
pcrro8a.afm: fonts/psfonts/psnfss-source/courier/pcrro8a.afm
ucrb8a.afm: fonts/urw/base35/afm/ucrb8a.afm
ucrbo8a.afm: fonts/urw/base35/afm/ucrbo8a.afm
ucrr8a.afm: fonts/urw/base35/afm/ucrr8a.afm
ucrro8a.afm: fonts/urw/base35/afm/ucrro8a.afm
pcrb.tfm: No hits
pcrb7t.tfm: No hits
...

For the files with one hit, it's clear where we can check the license;
for the ones with multiple hits it shouldn't be hard.  The tfm file in
this case might be in lw35nfss.zip.

Regards, Frank


-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)

Message #10 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Frank Küster <[email protected]>

To: [email protected]

Cc: Debian Bug Tracking System <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: Bug#366842: tetex-base: unclear license and origin situation of Base 35 PS fonts

Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 18:44:48 +0200

Frank Küster <[email protected]> wrote:

> For the files with one hit, it's clear where we can check the license;
> for the ones with multiple hits it shouldn't be hard.  The tfm file in
> this case might be in lw35nfss.zip.

Okay, for courier.tpm this gives the following files which are neither

- on CTAN, uncompressed,
- in lw35nfss.zip nor 
- in freenfss.zip

texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbc.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrrc.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrb.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrbo.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrr.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrro.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrb.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbc.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbo.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrr.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrrc.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrro.vf: No hits

Regards, Frank

-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)

Message #20 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Ralf Stubner <[email protected]>

To: Frank Küster <[email protected]>, [email protected]

Subject: Re: Bug#366842: tetex-base: unclear license and origin situation of Base 35 PS fonts

Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 19:57:40 +0200

On Thu, May 11, 2006 at 18:44 +0200, Frank Küster wrote:
> Frank Küster <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> > For the files with one hit, it's clear where we can check the license;
> > for the ones with multiple hits it shouldn't be hard.  The tfm file in
> > this case might be in lw35nfss.zip.
> 
> Okay, for courier.tpm this gives the following files which are neither
> 
> - on CTAN, uncompressed,
> - in lw35nfss.zip nor 
> - in freenfss.zip

I am missing 

texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbc8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrrc8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro8u.tfm

here. Where did your script find these? Files with these names can be
found in CTAN:macros/cstex/base/cspsfonts.tar.gz. The license status of
which is being sorted out at the moment. The same applies to the
following files

> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrb.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrbo.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrr.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrro.tfm: No hits

Next, there are

> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb8y.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo8y.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr8y.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro8y.tfm: No hits

8y stands for LY1 encoding, which gives us the hint to look into 
CTAN:fonts/metrics/ly1/lw35nfsx.zip. Files with this name can be found
in there. Unfortunately there is no license statement. And the creators
of these files (Y&Y) are out of buisness. There are also LaTeX support
files in there. However, teTeX is probably shipping those from 
CTAN:macros/latex/contrib/psnfssx/ly1/. Again, no proper license
statement. 

This leaves the following files:

> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbc.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrrc.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro.tfm: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrb.vf: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbc.vf: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbo.vf: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrr.vf: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrrc.vf: No hits
> texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrro.vf: No hits

I have no idea where they come from. Maybe from the meanwhile deleted
CTAN:fonts/metrics/adobe/? I will have to check some old CTAN CDs for
this. 

For both, these metrics and the LY1 metrics above the general question
applies: Do I gain copyright by calling afm2tfm (or a similar tool) with
appropriate options? Does converting information from one format to
another give me any rights under copyright law?

If 'no', we should be fine as long as we are allowed to distribute
Adobe's AFM metrics (texmf-dist/fonts/afm/adobe/). I am not sure if the
LPPL statement in CTAN:fonts/metrics/psnfss-source/README.sources
applies to the AFM files, too. 

BTW, we are not the only ones distributing Adobe's AFM files:

~$ dpkg -S  Courier.afm pcrr8a.afm
openoffice.org: /usr/lib/openoffice/share/psprint/fontmetric/Courier.afm
python-matplotlib-data: /usr/share/matplotlib/pcrr8a.afm
tetex-extra: /usr/share/texmf-tetex/fonts/afm/adobe/courier/pcrr8a.afm
libgnomeprint-data: /usr/share/fonts/afms/adobe/pcrr8a.afm

cheerio
ralf

Message #25 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Ralf Stubner <[email protected]>

To: Frank Küster <[email protected]>, [email protected]

Subject: Re: Bug#366842: tetex-base: unclear license and origin situation of Base 35 PS fonts

Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 22:06:26 +0200

On Thu, May 11, 2006 at 19:57 +0200, Ralf Stubner wrote:
> On Thu, May 11, 2006 at 18:44 +0200, Frank Küster wrote:
> > texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb.tfm: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbc.tfm: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo.tfm: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr.tfm: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrrc.tfm: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro.tfm: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrb.vf: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbc.vf: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbo.vf: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrr.vf: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrrc.vf: No hits
> > texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrro.vf: No hits
> 
> I have no idea where they come from. Maybe from the meanwhile deleted
> CTAN:fonts/metrics/adobe/? I will have to check some old CTAN CDs for
> this. 

I did check CTAN CD sets from 1999, 2000, and 2001. In 1999 these files
were part off PSNFSS, which was still maintained by Sebastion Rahtz at
that time. They could be found in fonts/psfonts/adobe/courier.zip,
fonts/psfonts/lw35nfss.zip, macros/latex/required/psnfss/lw35nfss.zip.
No license statement in the accompanying README files etc. :-(

In 2000 Walter took aver maintaining PSNFSS and these files could no
longer be found in macros/latex/required/psnfss/lw35nfss.zip. They were
still in the other two places. 

In 2001, fonts/psfonts/lw35nfss.zip had disappeared, but those files
could still be found in fonts/psfonts/adobe/courier.zip. Meanwhile that
file is gone, too, together with the entire fonts/psfonts/adobe
directory. 

So while it shouldn't be a problem to get a proper license statement for
these files from Sebastian, these files seem to only exist in teTeX and
TeX Live. I still don't know, if they are used anywhere.

cheerio
ralf

Message #30 received at [email protected] (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Frank Küster <[email protected]>

To: Ralf Stubner <[email protected]>

Cc: [email protected]

Subject: Re: Bug#366842: tetex-base: unclear license and origin situation of Base 35 PS fonts

Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 22:39:20 +0200

Ralf Stubner <[email protected]> wrote:

> I did check CTAN CD sets from 1999, 2000, and 2001. In 1999 these files
> were part off PSNFSS, which was still maintained by Sebastion Rahtz at
> that time. They could be found in fonts/psfonts/adobe/courier.zip,
> fonts/psfonts/lw35nfss.zip, macros/latex/required/psnfss/lw35nfss.zip.
> No license statement in the accompanying README files etc. :-(
>
> In 2000 Walter took aver maintaining PSNFSS and these files could no
> longer be found in macros/latex/required/psnfss/lw35nfss.zip. 
[...]
> So while it shouldn't be a problem to get a proper license statement for
> these files from Sebastian,

Knock on wood...

> these files seem to only exist in teTeX and
> TeX Live. I still don't know, if they are used anywhere.

Why not simply ask Walter why he removed them?

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)

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