NOTATIO

This is a question to designers of SMuFL fonts.

I noticed that SMuFL includes the Indian Drum Clef designed by Keda Music (https://keda.co.uk/indian-drum-clef/) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Their website states: "The clef is available for use without adaptation worldwide and can be used freely in your own compositions without charge. It is also included in the score-writing software Dorico.”

How do you approach using this symbol in your font? Do you seek permission from Keda Music to alter it to match your font’s style?
Or do you just reuse it as is, without changing anything?
I was surprised to find that a symbol with licensing restrictions would be included as a part of the recommended glyph set in SMuFL. Is a font designer expected to check all symbols in Bravura for licensing restrictions?

I have never seen it, and I doubt they can claim what they do.

If you redraw a glyph from scratch based on the visual appearance:

- In the US this is often lawful because the typeface design itself generally isn't protected by copyright.
- In many EU countries, it "may" still infringe design rights or other protections if those rights exist.

But a font file (otf ttf) is almost always protected by copyright as computer software.

The CC licenses were not designed for fonts, and the Creative Commons organization itself generally recommends not using CC licenses for fonts, because font software and typeface designs involve legal issues that CC licenses do not address well, as above stated.  If your question is specifically, "Can I modify the letter shapes of a CC BY-ND font and release my version?" then the answer is no.  The "NoDerivatives" clause prohibits distributing modified versions of the licensed font.

OCTO wrote: 07 Jul 2026, 22:51 If your question is specifically, "Can I modify the letter shapes of a CC BY-ND font and release my version?" then the answer is no.  The "NoDerivatives" clause prohibits distributing modified versions of the licensed font.

Thanks for this.

CC BY-ND is not for a font, but for a symbol. I would assume this can be protected.
But then, it's a symbol under CC BY-ND, which is included in Bravura under SIL Open Font License. Feels like a contradiction.

How would one even establish whether a shape had been modified based on the original vector data, a scan, or redrawn by just looking at the original symbol? Not sure this would make a difference in applying the license.