Let's just gather information in this bug.  I have written a tiny
script:

Frank Küster <frank@debian.org> wrote:

Okay, for courier.tpm this gives the following files which are neither

- on CTAN, uncompressed,
- in lw35nfss.zip nor
- in freenfss.zip

texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbc.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrrc.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrb.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrbo.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrr.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrro.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrb.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbc.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbo.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrr.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrrc.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrro.vf: No hits

Regards, Frank

Frank Küster <frank@debian.org> wrote:

Okay, for courier.tpm this gives the following files which are neither

- on CTAN, uncompressed,
- in lw35nfss.zip nor
- in freenfss.zip

texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbc.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrrc.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro8y.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrb.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrbo.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrr.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/rpcrro.tfm: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrb.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbc.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrbo.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrr.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrrc.vf: No hits
texmf-dist/fonts/vf/adobe/courier/pcrro.vf: No hits

Regards, Frank

I am missing

texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrb8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbc8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrbo8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrr8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrrc8u.tfm
texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/adobe/courier/pcrro8u.tfm

here. Where did your script find these? Files with these names can be
found in CTAN:macros/cstex/base/cspsfonts.tar.gz. The license status of
which is being sorted out at the moment. The same applies to the
following files

Next, there are

8y stands for LY1 encoding, which gives us the hint to look into
CTAN:fonts/metrics/ly1/lw35nfsx.zip. Files with this name can be found
in there. Unfortunately there is no license statement. And the creators
of these files (Y&Y) are out of buisness. There are also LaTeX support
files in there. However, teTeX is probably shipping those from
CTAN:macros/latex/contrib/psnfssx/ly1/. Again, no proper license
statement.

This leaves the following files:

I have no idea where they come from. Maybe from the meanwhile deleted
CTAN:fonts/metrics/adobe/? I will have to check some old CTAN CDs for
this.

For both, these metrics and the LY1 metrics above the general question
applies: Do I gain copyright by calling afm2tfm (or a similar tool) with
appropriate options? Does converting information from one format to
another give me any rights under copyright law?

If 'no', we should be fine as long as we are allowed to distribute
Adobe's AFM metrics (texmf-dist/fonts/afm/adobe/). I am not sure if the
LPPL statement in CTAN:fonts/metrics/psnfss-source/README.sources
applies to the AFM files, too.

BTW, we are not the only ones distributing Adobe's AFM files:

~$ dpkg -S  Courier.afm pcrr8a.afm
openoffice.org: /usr/lib/openoffice/share/psprint/fontmetric/Courier.afm
python-matplotlib-data: /usr/share/matplotlib/pcrr8a.afm
tetex-extra: /usr/share/texmf-tetex/fonts/afm/adobe/courier/pcrr8a.afm
libgnomeprint-data: /usr/share/fonts/afms/adobe/pcrr8a.afm

cheerio
ralf

I did check CTAN CD sets from 1999, 2000, and 2001. In 1999 these files
were part off PSNFSS, which was still maintained by Sebastion Rahtz at
that time. They could be found in fonts/psfonts/adobe/courier.zip,
fonts/psfonts/lw35nfss.zip, macros/latex/required/psnfss/lw35nfss.zip.
No license statement in the accompanying README files etc. :-(

In 2000 Walter took aver maintaining PSNFSS and these files could no
longer be found in macros/latex/required/psnfss/lw35nfss.zip. They were
still in the other two places.

In 2001, fonts/psfonts/lw35nfss.zip had disappeared, but those files
could still be found in fonts/psfonts/adobe/courier.zip. Meanwhile that
file is gone, too, together with the entire fonts/psfonts/adobe
directory.

So while it shouldn't be a problem to get a proper license statement for
these files from Sebastian, these files seem to only exist in teTeX and
TeX Live. I still don't know, if they are used anywhere.

cheerio
ralf

Ralf Stubner <ralf.stubner@web.de> wrote:
[...]

Knock on wood...

Why not simply ask Walter why he removed them?

Regards, Frank