You have a point! You may be able to legally distribute binary builds of a work that is open-source except for these fonts, as long as the open-source parts are

You have a point! You may be able to legally distribute binary builds of a work that is open-source except for these fonts, as long as the open-source parts aren't copyleft and the fonts aren't part of the source distribution. I should have said the license didn't allow you to distribute the TTFs with your open-source code and assets. Sorry for probably overstating the case. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti..., typefaces also aren't copyrighted in Japan and South Korea but are in Germany (for no more than 25 years) and the United Kingdom (also 25 years). So bitmap fonts from classic 8- and 16-bit video games should be in the public domain in all of these countries.