Plus42 Equations, Preview Release

[Nigel (UK)]

(02-08-2022 01:15 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(02-08-2022 11:59 AM)Nigel (UK) Wrote:  Right at this last moment, I've noticed a potential licensing issue: I've used characters from the WP34S project, which is licensed under GPL v3; but Plus42 is GPL v2. Does anyone know if this could be a problem?

In the United States at least, I believe the answer is no: it's not a problem. Being a legal matter, though, nothing is ever quite that simple. See here, for example.

In Free42, I assumed that I could use the original fonts from the HP-42S, and so far, no one has told me otherwise. I seem to remember font copyrights being an issue when Apple was suing other companies over their copying of various aspects of the Mac user interface, and one ruling I read about specifically stated that low-resolution graphics (fonts and icons) cannot be protected by copyright, since there simply isn't enough room for creativity at low resolutions. In other words, form follows function, and in those cases, functional forms cannot be copyrighted.

Reading your link, I think it's probably all right. If anyone from the WP34S project did object, all I'd have to do would be to remove the font.inc and the genfont_nd2 code and compiled program. The font patterns themselves would not be an issue.

I'll leave things are they are for now. Thank you for your comment!

Nigel (UK)