From: "Dave Turner via RT" <licensing@fsf.org>
Reply-To: licensing@fsf.org
To: fangq@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu
Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2005 17:54:16 -0400
Subject: [gnu.org #247538] about Arphic Public License
> [fangq@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu - Tue Jul 19 16:58:58 2005]:
>
> Dear Sir
>
> I am currently working on an open-source CJK font project, the
> WenQuanYi
> project (http://wqy.sf.net/en/ ). We released our bitmap CJK fonts
> under GPL.
> However, as you may know, the open-source true-type Chinese fonts
> donated by
> Arphic Co. are widely used in many Linux distributions. Meanwhile,
> there are
> subsequent works by other people based on these fonts. Their
> project
> leader contacted me to see if it is possible to embed our GPL bitmap
> font
> into their true-type fonts to enhance the screen readability.
>
> Unfortunately Arphic's fonts are licensed under Arphic Public License
> (APL).
> From [1], I found that APL is incompatible with GPL. however, under
> the same
> title, it also reads "Its normal use is for fonts, and in that use,
> the
> incompatibility does not cause a problem."
>
> I don't know how to understand this sentence. my confusions were
> summarized
> into the following questions
>
> 1. is it legal to combine an APL font with a GPL font?
As one font, no. Other sorts of combinations (for example, using glyphs
from two fonts in one document) are possible, but not what you want here.
> 3. if not, what do you suggest in order to make this collaboration
> happen?
One or both of you need to relicense. That means talking to all
copyright holders.
--
-Dave "Novalis" Turner
GPL Compliance Engineer
Free Software Foundation
