Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!pacbell.com!ames!amdahl!esf00 From: esf00@uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) Newsgroups: comp.fonts Subject: Re: Are fonts illegal to copy?? Message-ID: Date: 5 Jul 90 19:38:20 GMT References: <7677@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <1990Jul1.205518.12783@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <1990Jul2.180307.1697@ico.isc.com> Reply-To: esf00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) Distribution: usa Organization: Time Waits for No Man, Processors Wait for the Disk Lines: 36 In article <1990Jul2.180307.1697@ico.isc.com> >rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) follows up to an article in which: >xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes: > >> 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. > >No, there is absolutely no conflict. If I produce a work (any work) which >can be copyrighted, that does not deny you freedom of speech or of the >press. It only denies you the right to use the work I have copyrighted >without my permission. To misquote A.J. Leibling: "Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one." Back in the days of movable type, if you couldn't find a printer willing to print your manifestoes ("prior censorship"??) you had to buy, build or borrow your own press and type. If the manufacturer/distributor of the press/type you wanted was not in agreement, you cuold go away empty handed. The most important posession of a political party is its presses. Read the stories coming out of the USSR: the Communist Party is willing (in various degrees) to give up its monopoly on power, the special privileges for its members, even the various mansions (dachas) that it owns, but not its presses and its newspapers. It would be a pity if you couldn't print your diatribe in a particular Old Style if no one will sell/rent/loan you a copy, but there's always T*ms R*mn or H*lv in almost every laser printer sold. -- Elliott Frank ...!{hplabs,ames,sun}!amdahl!esf00 (408) 746-6384 or ....!{bnrmtv,drivax,hoptoad}!amdahl!esf00 [the above opinions are strictly mine, if anyone's.] [the above signature may or may not be repeated, depending upon some inscrutable property of the mailer-of-the-week.]