Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!portal!atari!imagen!isaak
From: isaak@imagen.UUCP (Mark Isaak)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: Are fonts illegal to copy??
Message-ID: <14525@imagen.UUCP>
Date: 2 Jul 90 18:18:40 GMT
References: <1990Jul1.205518.12783@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Imagen Corp., Santa Clara CA
Lines: 22

in article <1990Jul1.205518.12783@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>, xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) says:
[re copyrighting fonts]

> Sadly, there is a huge and probably irreconcilable conflict between the
> quite understandable desire of a font foundry to protect their fonts'
> designs, and the rights guaranteed under the first amendment.
> 
> It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to forsee censorship being
> accomplished by denying the intended publisher of a wildly unpopular tract
> license to use _any_ font.

Certainly extending copyrights to font designs would leave lots of fonts
in public domain; many fonts are well over 100 years old.  In fact, my
[non-expert] interpretation would be that the _ex post facto_ prohibition
would prevent you from copyrighting any font which is already in public
domain, which at them moment means every existing font.

Why were copyrights disallowed for fonts in the first place?  Am I
missing something?
-- 
Mark Isaak    {decwrl,sun}!imagen!isaak  or  imagen!isaak@decwrl.dec.com
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." - Nietzsche