Andrew, et al,
On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 6:26 PM, Andrew Bernard [via Lilypond] <
ml-node+s1069038n189008...@n5.nabble.com> wrote:
> Hi Abraham,
>
> With your announcement of the commercialisation of your fonts and the
> taking down of the website, there is clearly a lot of speculation and
> uncertainty in the user community. Would you be so kind as to lay out for
> the list a full explanation of your approach going forward so as to assuage
> doubts and clarify the situation, instead of having list members second
> guess your intentions? I for one am quite concerned that the huge effort I
> have invested in scores using your fonts will become nullified.
>
> Thanks!
>
No problem. Thanks for everyone's patience and questions. Let me lay out
some things that should (hopefully) put the majority of questions to rest.
I'll start from the beginning...
Last October I was laid off. Thankfully I had some funds saved up to make
it by until about this last Christmas. Around that time I took to a lot of
contemplation and after some encouragement from others, I made the
executive decision to makes some changes to how I was distributing some of
my fonts. I say "some" because there are a handful that are kind of out of
my control due to their original licensing. Others of my own creation would
become "commercialized". I wouldn't exactly call them proprietary since
virtually everything in a font is exposed to the end user. I decided to set
up a new store to facilitate these changes more effectively than what I was
doing on fonts.openlilylib.org. I was hoping that this could provide a
little extra side income for myself. I hope everyone can be understanding.
What does this mean? It means, as tyronicus and Urs have wisely stated (and
is my intent), that the new licensing is not retroactive. In other words,
if you have the fonts already, there is absolutely nothing I can (or intend
to) do to make you pay the new licensing fees that will be associated with
the new versions. So, Andrew, rest assured that you can keep and use the
fonts that are in your possession.
Now, there's one more curve ball here that I fully understand and I want
everyone else to understand. The copies of fonts previously distributed
under a libre license IS STILL LICENSED THAT WAY. In other words, if that
license allows you to distribute, make derivatives, etc., then YOU CAN
without anyone's permission. I understand this and there's nothing I can do
about it. If I could ask a favor, however, if you like what I've done, I
would really appreciate it if someone comes asking any of you who have one
of my fonts (specifically those that will be under a new license, which
I'll mention below) that you refer them to my new website to acquire a
license to use it instead of giving them the files you have. Acquiring the
license also brings support for the fonts. I haven't yet determined if I
would support the remaining libre fonts. I probably will, but only time
will tell. I have no desire to leave anyone in the dark. I want to help.
I'll just have to prioritize my time towards those who have paid for it.
Chances are that I'll still be able to support everyone. I sincerely hope I
can. Only time will tell if I will be able to do any major updates to the
remaining free fonts.
Speaking of changes, here are the fonts that will fall under the new
commercial licensing:
- Arnold
- Beethoven
- Cadence
- Gutenberg1939
- Haydn
- Improviso
- Ross
- Scorlatti
What will be different about them? The main thing is that they will all be
completely sterilized from the Emmentaler glyphs. Previously, I left the
Emmentaler glyphs in where the font didn't have a replacement. These have
all been removed. I hope to add many of the missing glyphs where possible.
I've tried hard to make sure that there is still a substantial set
available that should cover the majority of normal use cases. Glyphs in the
shape-notes and ancient notation sets will not be included in any of the
commercial fonts. I just don't see any point to that because I'd just be
duplicating the effort there when you can already access them through
Emmentaler.
Everything else will remain free, available through my site. Right off the
bat, I will probably only have an update for LilyJAZZ, but others will
hopefully follow soon.
Hopefully that clarifies things. Let me know if there are further questions!
Best,
Abraham
--
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