Fonts licence question

[Yury]

Hi Gurus.

We have commercial project with flash banner creator. In Banner creator we use fonts, which should be copied in directory of the project. Question: can we use fonts of debian or must we buy fonts?

Thanks for answer.

[paivakil]

Different fonts in Debian come under different licenses.

You may have to tell us which fonts you intend on using. Also, you may be better off asking the debian-legal mailing list.

Debian is not in the business of selling fonts. ;-D

[Yury]

For example Verdana. Where is lizens for this font and is this font free (can we use in our project)?

[roseway]

Verdana is a Microsoft font. You would have to ask them (and good luck).

[bugsbunny]

Microsoft Typography - Font Redistribution FAQ

Licensing Microsoft Fonts
Q. What can I do with the fonts supplied with Microsoft products?
A. The fonts are governed by the same restrictions as the products they are supplied with. You are not allowed to copy, redistribute or reverse engineer the font files. For full details see the license agreement supplied with the product.

Q. Can I embed Microsoft fonts in my documents?
A. Embedding allows fonts to travel with documents. Most fonts distributed with Microsoft products allow embedding. To check a font's embedding permissions, right-click on the font file and choose 'Properties'.

There are 4 levels of embedding permissions:

'Print and preview' fonts can be embedded in a document, provided the user reading the document cannot edit the content of the document.

'Editable' fonts can be embedded within content that can be edited by the user.

'Installable' fonts within a document may be permanently installed by the user reading the document or a client application. In practice, installable fonts are treated like editable fonts by most client applications.

'No embedding permissions' prevent fonts from being embedded in a document.

Q. I'd like to license a particular font supplied with a Microsoft product, or I'd like to license additional copies, or buy a site-license for a particular font supplied with a Microsoft product.
A. Microsoft licenses existing fonts from various font vendors and also commissions original fonts. If you are looking to license a particular font, you should contact the vendor directly. The vendor will be listed in the font's copyright or trademark entry. To find out this information, right-click on the font file and choose 'Properties'.

Until recently, most fonts that include a Microsoft copyright or trademark notice have only been available as part of Microsoft products. Although some fonts remain Microsoft-exclusive, a number of Microsoft fonts are now available to end users, ISVs and OEMs under license from Ascender Corporation. These include 'Verdana', 'Georgia', 'Comic Sans MS', 'Microsoft Sans Serif', 'Nina', 'Tahoma', 'Wingdings', 'Webdings' and 'Trebuchet MS'.