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From: DLV@CUNYVMS1.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: Facts on font protection.
Message-ID: <9007060254.AA03270@jade.berkeley.edu>
Date: 6 Jul 90 02:54:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 21


I know the following sounds a bit paranoid, but looking at what's happening
with copyright protection of computer software---I mean specifically the 'look
and feel' craziness, that stems, I believe from the lawsuit against McDonald's
who allegedly infinged against someone's look and feel with their puppet
characters. Presently, one big software company is suing another big software
company claiming that it infringed on its look and feel by using 's' as
abbreviation for 'save' and 'fr' for 'file retrieval'; another lawsuit concerns
the use of a picture of a trash can on the screen. I can very well imagine
something similar happening with typefaces, where 'look and feel' is a lot more
applicable. Imagine font designer A suing B over misusing his 'g', B
countersuing A because the 'g' was original designed by Bodoni and hence A's
copyright is invalid, and the judge finding for A because Bodini is not a party
to the suit, and anyway the statute of limitations for that claim has expired.
This sort of silliness undoubtedly awaits us if typefaces are thus protected.

Dimitri Vulis
Department of Mathematics
City University of New York Graduate Center

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