Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!nosc!crash!oleg From: oleg@crash.cts.com (Oleg Rovner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: "Demos" and piracy Message-ID: <3557@crash.cts.com> Date: 16 Jul 90 02:34:52 GMT References: <3492@crash.cts.com> <1990Jul13.154213.11818@sisd.kodak.com> Organization: Crash TimeSharing, El Cajon, CA Lines: 40 In article <1990Jul13.154213.11818@sisd.kodak.com> jeh@athena.sisd.kodak.com (Ed Hanway) writes: >Has anyone ever wondered where the demo writers get those nice huge fonts for >their scrolling messages? > >One demo that I downloaded a few years ago (from a commercial service, no less) >included a file named 77, which turned out to be a verbatim copy of a >commercial 77 point Helvetica lookalike disk font (sold by Zuma, I think.) > >Granted, there are many more sources of public domain Amiga fonts today than >there were back then, and it's not out of the question for these demo authors >to design their own, but I don't see why the author of a program whose purpose >is to annouce new cracked 'warez' to fellow pirates should be given the >benefit of the doubt. > >(I'm not saying all demos are written by pirates. The Wild Copper demos, >in particular, while somewhat vulgar, explicitly discourage piracy.) >-- >Ed Hanway >(speaking for myself, not my employer) I have a couple of questions about this. First, the "benefit of the doubt" thing. Is it my mistake, or do we live in a country where it is still OK to be innocent until accused of having anything to do with drugs? Perhaps we are entering a brave new world in which producing software for other people to enjoy is a criminal act. Far be it from me to say anything about the Spectrum Holobyte v PD debacle, but it seems that that was the all important first step... Now perhaps we can have a demo szar and an agency to track down those who view or use software not produced by Microsoft or Borland or any "commercial" publisher. :-) Now a semi-serious question. It has been my impression that fonts/typefaces cannot be copyrighted, just their names. So, it is not legal to release a Times (c) font, but it is ok to use the data from that font or produce a look-alike font. Flames for the first statement directed to alt.flame, replies to the second question, would be very much appreciated. Regards, OR