Please don't strip attributions for quoted material.
I forget the name, but most of these fonts are descended from a standard public domain set from the Library of Congress or some such organization. These describe fonts in terms of brush strokes, and can be used to create arbitrary sized fonts of various types.
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Maybe look at it this way. Would you be comfortable with taking all of the typefaces that you received with MS Word or Corel Draw or ..., rendering them as machine-readable bitmaps in a variety of sizes and weights, and then selling the resulting collection?
-- Rich Webb Norfolk, VA
No, that would be infringing. Using them as the display font in an embedded system, where they can't be extracted without decompiling, is a reasonable use.
--Gene
It should be emphasised that Adobe *licensed* those masters, which would have given them some rights and obligations also. For many years Adobe's Type 1 fonts were protected by an encryption scheme to prevent this kind of piracy: It is likely that this protection measure was insisted upon by the licensors of the original typefaces.
Perhaps the argument that won that case is weakened, but it seems fairly obvious that such bitmaps are more or less faithful copies of the licensed/value-added design. Anyone who wishes to produce commercial typefaces, bitmap or vector, has the option of licensing someone else's (as Adobe did with e.g. Linotype, ITC), or producing original work. Copying or reprocessing Adobe's digitisations is a zero-effort copyright violation - test it in court.
It doesn't have to be regarded as a program to be protected by copyright. It is a 'work' just like a novel, drawing or painting. Particular computer programs are likewise protected as 'expressions'. The typeface in the form of pencil drawings on tracing paper, or scanned image files, or vector tracings stored as a file, has equal protection.
It's the same with any other product - program, DVD, book, CD - it comes with a written license. Generally (but not always, for instance GPL) this precludes redistribution.
Are you afraid of someone reverse engineering the font and abusing their license? Any measures you take to protect *your* product are up to you, as long as you meet the terms of your font licensor.
It may seem obvious, but the policy decision from the copyright office claims the bitmaps are not copyrightable. It's the law that counts. If you feel the law says otherwise, please post the relevant section.
CBFalconer schrieb:
You don't think of Hershey, or do you?
cheers Gunther
this started as a very good discussion and looked like it could help people out with their concerns over the law. Now it seems to be a pissing contest. Laws are sometimes different in different countries. But the arguments seem pointless now that's to all who had constructive things to say. I will now be marking this thread to ignore :-)
David
You may be right about the letter of US copyright law, but I would argue the ruling is in error. (As I mention elsewhere a typeface surely can be protected as a work regardless of whether it can be described as a computer program.) One would also have to consult the EULA for the typefaces in question.
What would you say about this scenario: I spend a year designing and drafting a typeface as inked squares on graph paper - a perfectly reasonable way to design a typeface for, e.g. embedded use. It's directly translatable into a digital bitmap, at any time I feel like it. Is that work not protectable by US copyright? Is it a 'bitmapped font'?
Actually I disagree with the categorisation of a Type 1 font as a program. It is merely data. The program is the rasteriser. TrueType is a little less clear cut however.
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