Unify AGL&AGLFN, glyphNameFormatter and GlyphsInfo licenses

[twardoch]

I’d like to propose that AGL&AGLFN, glyphNameFormatter and GlyphsInfo adopt the same license text, the "BSD 3-Clause Revised License", unified in the way that I’m proposing below.

AGLFN

Currently, https://github.com/adobe-type-tools/agl-aglfn/blob/master/aglfn.txt is licensed under the "BSD 3-Clause Revised License" as follows (it mentions "Adobe" explicitly in the 3rd clause):

Copyright 2002-2019 Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/)

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

Neither the name of Adobe nor the names of its contributors may be
used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without
specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

glyphNameFormatter

Currently, https://github.com/LettError/glyphNameFormatter is licensed also under the "BSD 3-Clause Revised License". Virtually identical to Adobe’s, but uses the generic "copyright holder" in 3rd clause.

Copyright (c) 2016, LettError and Erik van Blokland, TypeMyType and Frederik Berlaen

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or
other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may
be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific
prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED
OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

GlyphsInfo

Currently, https://github.com/schriftgestalt/GlyphsInfo is licensed under the "MIT License":

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Georg Seifert

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Suggestion

If possible, I’d like to suggest that all three projects change their license as follows:

• AGL & AGLFN, copyright entry:

Copyright 2002-2019 Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/)

• glyphNameFormatter, copyright entry:

Copyright 2016 LettError and Erik van Blokland, TypeMyType and Frederik Berlaen

• GlyphsInfo, copyright entry:

Copyright 2016 Georg Seifert

Then followed by this identical text:

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or
without modification, are permitted provided that the
following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution.

Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of
its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND
CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Effectively:

• for AGL & AGLFN, it does not change the terms, it only replaces the explicit mention for Adobe by "the copyright holder"
• for glyphNameFormatter, it only removes the numbers from the clauses
• for GlyphsInfo, it changes the license from MIT license to the BSD 3-Clause Revised License

We’d gain from this that all three projects would have an identical license, so any composite data made from those projects could simply be credited as:

Copyright 2002-2019 Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/)
Copyright 2016 LettError and Erik van Blokland, TypeMyType and Frederik Berlaen
Copyright 2016 Georg Seifert

plus potential additional contributors, followed by the same text.

I think this would simplify things a lot.

[twardoch]

This issue is replicated in all three projects:

• Unify AGL&AGLFN, glyphNameFormatter and GlyphsInfo licenses adobe-type-tools/agl-aglfn#5
• Unify AGL&AGLFN, glyphNameFormatter and GlyphsInfo licenses #86
• Unify AGL&AGLFN, glyphNameFormatter and GlyphsInfo licenses schriftgestalt/GlyphsInfo#25

[LettError]

Which benefits, after this effort?

[twardoch]

The benefits include much easier ability to combine names from these sources. Right now taking some data from one source and some from another forces you to repeat the full license texts of all three projects.

For example, since this repo contains

https://github.com/LettError/glyphNameFormatter/blob/master/Lib/glyphNameFormatter/data/GlyphData.xml

it actually should also contain

https://github.com/schriftgestalt/GlyphsInfo/blob/master/LICENSE

but doesn't.

But after unification, if GNUFL contains data from AGLFN & any data from GlyphsInfo, its license could simply say:

[twardoch]

Copyright 2002-2019 Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/)
Copyright 2016 LettError and Erik van Blokland, TypeMyType and Frederik Berlaen
Copyright 2016 Georg Seifert

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or
without modification, are permitted provided that the
following conditions are met:

Redistributions of source code must retain the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer.

Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution.

Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of
its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND
CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT
NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN
CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

[twardoch]

Since the data is very similar in nature, a “license commons” is the best approach. Reduces entropy, simplifies things, helps you not worry about the license stuff.

Seems that Read is willing to do the change in AGL+AGLFN. I also chatted with Rainer recently, and he indicated that Glyphs might be willing to change their license as well.

For GNUFL, the change is really minimal — just unifying the text verbatim with Adobe’s. Since Adobe is least free to do changes (as it's a big corp), I've proposed the changes in a way that should be most friendly for each of the three projects.

Basically, imagine that BMP dataof Unicode were available under a different license than the SMP data. That would be rather tedious for users and unnecessarily complicate things.

[LettError]

GlyphData.xml and AGD.txt are only used for some comparisons. Their names are not included in the GNUFL lists. We can just remove the two files from the repo.

[twardoch]

I think that would be wise just to follow the law.

The other aspect (unifying licenses for the three repos, which for AGLFN & GNUFL really means just a cosmetic change that does not affect the terms, while for GlyphsInfo it actually does mean switching from MIT to FreeBSD) still would have “commons“ benefits.

I.e. if these three repos had the same license, you wouldn't even been need to think whether you need to keep or remove that .xml. You still could, but for reasons othee than "reducing legal conplexity". :)

[LettError]

AGD.txt and GlyphData.xml have been removed from this repository. The code will still look for them for testing and reference.