Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!yale!cs.utexas.edu!usc!jarthur!sif.claremont.edu
From: dhosek@sif.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: Are fonts illegal to copy??
Keywords: Macintosh, postscript, fonts, laserwriter
Message-ID: <7677@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 30 Jun 90 06:21:28 GMT
Sender: news@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
Reply-To: dhosek@sif.claremont.edu
Distribution: usa
Organization: Quixote
Lines: 22

In article <HEMSTREE.90Jun29220024@handel.handel.CS.Colostate.Edu>, hemstree@handel.CS.Colostate.Edu (charles he hemstreet) writes...

>Is it possible to scan fonts from a book (book of fonts) and then use
>some program to make them into real postscript fonts for a MacIntosh?
>Is this illegal?

Under US copyright law fonts per se are not copyrightable. A
METAFONT or PostScript program to generate a font can be
copyrighted, but the design itself can only be afforded very
limited protection under a design patent.

There are quite a few people in the typesetting world (myself
among them) who do not approve of this state of affairs and are
working to get it changed.

-dh

---
Don Hosek                         TeX, LaTeX, and Metafont Consulting and
dhosek@ymir.claremont.edu         production work. Free Estimates.
dhosek@ymir.bitnet                
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