On Wednesday 2003.12.03 08:59:43 -0800, D. Starner wrote: > Michael Everson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes > > > I (for instance) provided Gothic and Linear B and Ogham and lots and > > lots of other fonts to print the standard. You are not suggesting > > that I (for instance) should *give* those fonts to Apple and Sun and > > Microsoft and Linux and any and everyone else so that they can add > > such excellent value to their operating systems, are you? > > And I'm sure he's not suggesting that a library just give out books, > either, is he? > > I might be sympathetic if I could go to Everson Typography and buy > these fonts that you don't dare give away, or if you had licensed > them to Apple or Sun or Microsoft. But, as far as I can tell, you > have these fonts sitting on a backup disk in the basement. It wouldn't > hurt you at all to release them in some form, and it would help the > Cherokee (for instance) to actually use Unicode for their language. >
WHY NOT just *give* away the Linear B, Ogham, Cherokee, and lots and lots of other fonts that are of interest to specialized user communities? My hunch is that Everson Typography will never make any money from a Linear B or Cherokee font anyway. The markets are just too small. Giving away those fonts would benefit those communities while simultaneously bolstering the reputation of the font vendor as a charitable corporate citizen. In fact, I'm sure marketing types could convince us that giving away some stuff for free is good for business and later generates sales of other stuff to all of those happy customers. However, I would not suggest giving those fonts away to an OS vendor like Microsoft or Apple or Sun or Redhat. You could either distribute them from your own web site under an appropriate license (i.e., one granting individuals free non-commercial use), or donate them to a community organization like SIL (http://www.sil.org/) or PrimoÅ Peterlin's FreeFont project (http://www.nongnu.org/freefont/). Just my two cents.
