[MPEG-OTSPEC] License Agreement question please

[Vladimir Levantovsky]

The 'fsType' field of the OS/2 table that specifies embedding permissions
(or embedding licensing rights, see
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/os2#fstype) and
license info URL and license description (that _may_ be included in a font
as part of the 'name' table info (see
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/opentype/spec/name#name-ids) are
unrelated fields. The former provides information about font embedding
rights that can be used by different applications (e.g. PDF or Office suite)
while the latter simply allows a font file to include its license info. In
reality, this is rarely the case, because the same font can be licensed to
different entities for different types of use under very different licenses.

In the majority of cases, the license rights are specified in the agreement
that is signed when a font is acquired, and its conditions are binding. In
legal world, if there is ever a case when two different licenses exist, and
one of them is more restrictive than the other - the less restrictive
license is in effect. Lawyers would always try to avoid being in this
situation - it's easier to have the licensing rights spelled out in the
agreement for each customer; they are typically _not_ included in the
licensed copy of the font itself.  

Hope this helps,
Vladimir


-----Original Message-----
From: mpeg-otspec [mailto:mpeg-otspec-bounces at lists.aau.at] On Behalf Of
William_J_G Overington
Sent: Saturday, March 5, 2022 3:31 PM
To: mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at
Subject: [MPEG-OTSPEC] License Agreement question please

To mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at

Hi

May I ask for advice please?

In the post

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/158224-save-as-a-package-a
nd-exclude-individual-fonts/&do=findComment&comment=895726

there is the following.

> REQUIRED field - fsType - Indicates font embedding licensing rights 
> for the font.

> NOT-REQUIRED fields - License Description, License Info URL

Earlier in the thread I had written as follows.

>> I looked in FontCreator and there is a field that is called, at least 
>> in FontCreator, I don't know about elsewhere, License Agreement.

I have not been able to find anything about the License Agreement field.

Is the License Agreement field (or whatever is the formal name) optional or
is it compulsary but may have null content please?

If the field is empty, how is that done please?

For example as an integer that indicates the length of the text having a
zero as its contents? Or with the text always ending with U+0000 even if the
field is empty? Or something else?

Also for the other fields of a similar nature that sometimes contain text,
such as Font Designer, please.

The thread is at the following place.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/158224-save-as-a-package-a
nd-exclude-individual-fonts/

Thank you.

William Overington

Saturday 5 March 2022

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