{"id":"Bitstream-Vera","title":"Bitstream Vera Font License","reviewed_on":"2026-09-22","reviewer":"Giray Havur","text_source":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/spdx/license-list-data/main/text/Bitstream-Vera.txt","text_retrieved":true,"verdict":"created","summary":"Models the font licence Bitstream wrote for the Vera typefaces. It is an MIT-shaped grant over a font with three additions: the notices have to travel with every copy, a modified font has to be renamed away from the Bitstream and Vera names, and no typeface may be sold on its own. The record follows OFL-1.1 for the font shape and for the sale prohibition.","findings":[{"rubric":1,"severity":"info","field":"spdx:licenseId","description":"File name, record identifier, SPDX identifier and IRI local name are all Bitstream-Vera.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":2,"severity":"info","field":"odrl:target","description":"One odrl:AssetCollection of dct:type dalicc:CreativeWork and dcmitype:Software, the pair OFL-1.1 uses: a font is a typeface design and a program file at the same time.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"The grant reads \"Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of the fonts accompanying this license (\"Fonts\") and associated documentation files (the \"Font Software\"), to reproduce and distribute the Font Software, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell copies of the Font Software, and to permit persons to whom the Font Software is furnished to do so\". The record permits reproduce, distribute, modify, derive, display, present, grantUse, commercial use, derivative works, modified works and the distribution fee.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":3,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:permission","description":"dalicc:ChangeLicense is permitted with the dalicc:compliantLicense duty. This is where the record parts from OFL-1.1, which prohibits relicensing because its text says the font must be distributed entirely under that licence. The Bitstream text has no such sentence.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":4,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:prohibition","description":"dalicc:sellCopy is prohibited for \"no copy of one or more of the Font Software typefaces may be sold by itself\", and dalicc:promote for \"the names of Gnome, the Gnome Foundation, and Bitstream Inc., shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Font Software\". cc:CommercialUse stays permitted because the same sentence allows the font to be sold as part of a larger package, which is the arrangement OFL-1.1 also records.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":5,"severity":"major","field":"odrl:duty","description":"cc:Attribution and cc:Notice hang off odrl:distribute, odrl:modify and odrl:derive for \"The above copyright and trademark notices and this permission notice shall be included in all copies\". dalicc:rename hangs off odrl:modify and odrl:derive for the sentence that allows modification \"only if the fonts are renamed to names not containing either the words \"Bitstream\" or the word \"Vera\"\".","action":"applied"},{"rubric":6,"severity":"minor","field":"dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer","description":"The disclaimer paragraph carries the warranty sentence and the liability sentence. They are split into dalicc:WarrantyDisclaimer and dalicc:LiabilityLimitation, as on OFL-1.1.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":7,"severity":"major","field":"dalicc:terminatesOnBreach","description":"dalicc:terminatesOnBreach is true for \"This License becomes null and void to the extent applicable to Fonts or Font Software that has been modified and is distributed under the \"Bitstream Vera\" names\". No cure period is given, so dalicc:curePeriod is absent. The text names no legal system and sets no term, so cc:jurisdiction is dalicc:worldwide and dalicc:validityType is dalicc:perpetual.","action":"applied"},{"rubric":8,"severity":"info","field":"dalicc:additionalClauses","description":"No clause of this text needs a term the vocabulary does not have. The conditional nullity is carried by dalicc:terminatesOnBreach and quoted in full.","action":"none"},{"rubric":9,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"The consistency check of app.services.composer against the dependency graph dg_default returned an empty conflict list.","action":"none"},{"rubric":10,"severity":"info","field":"record","description":"Read against licensedata/licenses/OFL-1.1.ttl: the same font target, the same dalicc:rename duty, the same dalicc:sellCopy prohibition and the same termination flag. The differences are that this text has no share-alike sentence, so no cc:ShareAlike duty is made, and that relicensing is permitted rather than prohibited.","action":"none"}],"family":"Permissive variants","port_of":null,"variant_kind":null,"variant_of":null,"notes":"cc:attributionName and dct:publisher name Bitstream, Inc., the copyright holder named in the text; the Gnome Foundation appears in the text as the second party whose name may not be used. cc:legalcode and dct:source both point at the SPDX page, because the original publisher page is no longer served."}