legal April 2022

legal@lists.fedoraproject.org

19 participants
8 discussions

FIGlet fonts
by Lyes Saadi 25 Jul '22

25 Jul '22

Hello Legal, I'm bringing back a discussion from 2012[1]: Figlet fonts! Indeed, I am trying to package python-pyfiglet[2] as a dependency for other packages. But, after the review, it came up that a lot of weird fonts were included. At the time, I didn't know anything about the discussion, and decided to abort everything. Recently though, a developer contacted me through the bug report, and proposed to help on the issue. He triaged the fonts and separated them depending on whether they were Open-Source or not, and we were thus able to create a clean package with none of the problematic fonts in it. In that discussion[3], emerged the fact that a discussion over this already happened ([1]), but it seems that either no consensus was reached, or that such consensus was lost to time as I wasn't able to find any conversation on figlet either on legal or devel mailing lists archives. And, it seems that the issue was just simply avoided since figlet ended up removing the problematic fonts anyway. But, upstream would like to keep the problematic fonts if possible in Fedora. And so, I would like to ask Legal to either give me the answer, if it actually was a settled matter, or to reach a consensus on Figlet fonts. To resume the situation (as I understand it, I am not a lawyer, obviously): In the US, fonts glyphs are not copyright-able as it is considered insufficiently creative. For the same reason, Bitmap fonts (fonts defined pixel by pixel) are also not copyright-able, as they are only considered as data which represents glyphs. But, Vector fonts (fonts defined using drawing instructions and code), is, on the other hand, copyright-able because it is defined through a software code. Then, we come to Figlet fonts. For those not aware of what Figlet fonts, they are also known as ASCII fonts: __ __ ____ __ ____ / / / /__ / / /___ / / ___ ____ _____ _/ / / / /_/ / _ \/ / / __ \ / / / _ \/ __ `/ __ `/ / / / __ / __/ / / /_/ / / /___/ __/ /_/ / /_/ / /_/ /_/ /_/\___/_/_/\____( ) /_____/\___/\__, /\__,_/_(_) |/ /____/ The issue with those is that no ruling (as far as I know) ever concerned that type of font in US Court. Though, one argument would be that Figlet fonts are similar to Bitmap fonts, as they only contain data about glyphs, and do not, in the same way as Vector fonts do, contain code giving to the computer drawing instructions for the fonts. As such Figlet fonts are not modular, or extensible, they just contain raw data about a font. But still, all this is speculation, and, as I said, I am not a lawyer, so I don't have any slight idea if such a defense would hold in court. I hope to have resumed the situation clearly enough and that I didn't make any mistake. Greetings, Lyes Saadi [1]: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=820642 [2]: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1876108 [3]: https://github.com/pwaller/pyfiglet/issues/89 PS: Can we remove the FE-legal blocker from the review request now that all the fonts have been sorted out?

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Draft attempt to define Fedora license categories
by Richard Fontana 24 Jul '22

24 Jul '22

Greetings, As part of some ongoing efforts to improve information relating to Fedora licensing and licensing policy, we want to provide better documentation around the various license approval categories for Fedora, as currently set forth here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:Main but which probably will live in the future on docs.fedoraproject.org. Here's a rough draft which I wanted to publish here for review. Feedback/criticisms/suggestions welcome. Side note: This preserves Tom Callaway's historical usage of "good" to mean "Fedora-approved", but I have mixed feelings about this terminology. 1. Licenses for Code “Code” means software code, any other functional material whose principal purpose is to control or facilitate the building of packages, such as an RPM spec file, and other kinds of material that the Fedora Council has classified as "code" rather than "content", but does not include font files. [Comment: This annoyingly and confusingly does not line up with definitions in the FPCA, but Fedora should get rid of the FPCA anyway] A license for code is “good” if the Fedora Project determines that the license is a free/libre//open source license. [Not sure if it's helpful to add the following:] In making this determination, Fedora historically relied primarily on the Free Software Definition as maintained and interpreted by the Free Software Foundation, but out of necessity Fedora passed judgment on many licenses never addressed by the FSF and, in the process, built up an informal body of interpretation and policymaking (admittedly, mostly undocumented) that went far beyond what the FSF had done. Fedora has also sometimes considered the decisions of other community Linux distributions and other important efforts to define and apply FLOSS norms, most notably the OSI’s Open Source Definition. In a small number of cases, Fedora has disagreed with decisions of the FSF and OSI regarding whether particular licenses are FLOSS. 2. Licenses for Documentation Any license that is good for code is also good for documentation. In addition, Fedora may designate a license as good for documentation if (a) the license meets the standards for good licenses for code, (b) the license is designed primarily for technical documentation or otherwise has a history of substantial use in free software communities for documentation, and (c) the license is not commonly or normally used for code. [Comment: this feels unsatisfactory to me, for multiple reasons, but I think it does accurately represent the historical Fedora policy.] 3. Licenses for Content “Content” means any material that is not code, documentation, fonts or binary firmware. Any license that is good for code is also good for content. In addition, Fedora may designate a license as good for content if it restricts or prohibits modification but otherwise meets the standards for good licenses for code. 4. Licenses for Fonts Any license that is good for code is also good for fonts. In addition, Fedora may designate a license as good for fonts if it contains a nominal prohibition on resale or distribution in isolation but otherwise meets the standards for good licenses for code. 5. Licenses for Binary Firmware Some applications, drivers, and hardware require binary-only firmware to boot Fedora or function properly. Fedora permits inclusion of these files if they meet certain requirements [currently set forth at: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Licensing:Main#Binary_Firmware but the non-license part of this needs to move somewhere else ]. Any license that is good for code is also good for binary firmware. In addition, Fedora may designate a particular firmware license as good for firmware if the terms in the license that would not be acceptable in a good code license are limited to the following: * Requirements that the firmware be redistributed only as incorporated in the redistributor's product (or as a maintenance update for existing end users of the redistributor's product), possibly limited further to those products of the redistributor that support or contain the hardware associated with the licensed firmware * Requirements that the redistributor to pass on or impose conditions on users that are no more restrictive than those authorized by Fedora itself with respect to firmware licenses * Prohibitions on modification, reverse engineering, disassembly or decompilation * Requirements that use be in conjunction with the hardware associated with the firmware license Richard

4 6

Third-party repositories
by Vitaly Zaitsev 30 Apr '22

30 Apr '22

Hello. Why we can[1] add unfiltered Flathub (it contains both patent-encumbered and proprietary software) and we can't[2] add RPM Fusion at the same time? [1]: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/300 [2]: https://pagure.io/fedora-workstation/issue/300#comment-793791 -- Sincerely, Vitaly Zaitsev (vitaly(a)easycoding.org)

5 8

SPDX Change for F37?
by Miroslav Suchý 28 Apr '22

28 Apr '22

It was already mentioned here in past - should we create Change proposal for F37 about migration of short license names to SPD identifiers? The benefits is IMHO obvious: we can track what is done / what needs to be done. And at the end it will get the information among people. I volunteer to create such document unless somebody is working on it. M.

9 18

Typo in FCPA FAQ
by Jason Yundt 26 Apr '22

26 Apr '22

Hello, I noticed a typo in the Fedora Project Contributor Agreement’s Historical FAQs [1]. The final answer says “[…]were made obsolete by the udpate[…]” It should say “update” instead of “udpate” From, Jason Yundt [1]: <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Fedora_Project_Contributor_Agreement#H…>

2 1

Do I have to remove the Fedora logos when redistributing a modified version of a Fedora ISO?
by T-vK T-vK 15 Apr '22

15 Apr '22

Hello there, I’m thinking about redistributing a slightly modified version of the official Fedora 34 ISO. Do I have to modify the ISO and remove all Fedora logos and replace them with the Fedora Remix Logo? And if so, is there a list of file locations that I have to take care of? I would of course make it very clear to everyone trying to download that ISO, that it is not official and merely based on Fedora. I have no intention of using any logos, unless i have to of course. I found this site: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:Secondary_trademark_usage_guidelines?r… It mentions the Fedora Remix Logo, but I don't understand what it is actually for and where exactly I have to use it. Any help would be appreciated. Best regards T-vK

4 10

mininet license
by Iñaki Ucar 06 Apr '22

06 Apr '22

Hi, Is this license [1] acceptable for Fedora and what would be the appropriate identifier for the License field? It seems to me some sort of BSD, and in fact the authors themselves identify it as such in the setup.py file [2], but I'd like to be sure. [1] https://github.com/mininet/mininet/blob/master/LICENSE [2] https://github.com/mininet/mininet/blob/master/setup.py -- Iñaki Úcar

5 15

Brainpool Curves in Fedora (openssl, libgcrypt, gnupg)
by Timothée Ravier 06 Apr '22

06 Apr '22

Hi everyone, The ECC Brainpool Curves [1][2] are currently not available in Fedora as according to this BZ [3], this needs Fedora Legal approval. Could someone from the legal team take a look to see if there are any blockers regarding Brainpool Curves inclusion in Fedora? Thanks! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic-curve_cryptography#Implementation [2] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5639 [3] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1413618

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legal April 2022