Adobe non free code in type 1 fonts

The problem

Font hinting uses some proprietary code from adobe. The non free code is described here:

How can I check

Lintian help see report here

Install the t1utils package and run the following command on the pfb file:

t1disasm file.pfb

Check if you see the non free code.

If you only the the lines

{systemdict /internaldict known not
{pop 3}
{1183615869 systemdict /internaldict get exec
dup /startlock known
{/startlock get exec}
{dup /strtlck known
{/strtlck get exec}
{pop 3}
ifelse}
ifelse}
ifelse
} executeonly
] noaccess def

you may be on the good side, since this fragment was created by Adobe but is now under Apache 2.0 license, brought to us via AFDKO (Adobe Font Development Kit for Opentype), see t1write_hintothers.h in afdko packge.

Lintian may be a little too aggressively here and complain about the above lines, see lintian bug #1029555.

How to solve

Rewriting is difficult:

Adobe seems willing to relicense see mail here.

I found this bug

Please report this bug by adding to the bug header the following usertag:

user: debian-qa@lists.debian.org
usertags: adobe-font-license
severity: serious

See usertags documentation for more information about usertags.

List of this kind of bug

Please see the list