Bug#647697: libsfml-dev: libsfml embeds non-free Arial font

[Sylvain Beucler]

Package: libsfml-dev
Version: 1.6+dfsg1-2+b1
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 2.2.1

Hi,

In the SFML fonts tutorial, it is mentioned that "SFML provides a
default built-in one, which is Arial with a character size of 30."
http://sfml-dev.org/tutorials/1.6/graphics-fonts.php

The file is indeed present in:
src/SFML/Graphics/Arial.hpp

It can be extracted trivially:
#include <stdio.h>
static const char DefaultFontData[] =
{
#include "Arial.hpp"
};
int main(void) {
  FILE* out = fopen("arial.ttf", "w");
  fwrite(DefaultFontData, sizeof(DefaultFontData), 1, out);
}

The version in Debian carries that file AFAICT.


This brings 2 issues:

- The font is not DFSG-compliant and needs to be replaced.

- The license of the font may be incompatible with the program that
  uses SFML.  For instance, if we replace this font with
  Liberation-Sans (GPL2+exceptions), which is metrically compatible
  with Arial, the resulting library will not be compabible with a
  GPL-without-exception application.  A work-around is to load the
  font from an external file.
  http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-legal@lists.debian.org/msg36597.html

-- 
Sylvain

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (200, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.0.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.utf8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages libsfml-dev depends on:
ii  libsfml-audio1.6     1.6+dfsg1-2+b1
ii  libsfml-graphics1.6  1.6+dfsg1-2+b1
ii  libsfml-network1.6   1.6+dfsg1-2+b1
ii  libsfml-system1.6    1.6+dfsg1-2+b1
ii  libsfml-window1.6    1.6+dfsg1-2+b1

libsfml-dev recommends no packages.

Versions of packages libsfml-dev suggests:
ii  libsfml-doc     1.6+dfsg1-2   
ii  libsfml1.6-dbg  1.6+dfsg1-2+b1

-- no debconf information