Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: How to tell a pirated PostScript font?
Summary: hard problem, but the name does matter
Message-ID: <1991May6.225858.5945@ico.isc.com>
Date: 6 May 91 22:58:58 GMT
References: <28986@spudge.UUCP>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation, Boulder, CO
Lines: 45

johnm@spudge.UUCP (John Munsch) writes:
> These days there is no shortage of Type 1 fonts that can be downloaded from
> BBS's every time you turn around.  Some of the ones I've gotten that have
> the same names as Adobe faces are:
[list deleted]
> Now personally I could care less if they use the same name as a commercial
> font.  Adobe might care, but I don't.  I do care if any of these fonts is
> pirated though.  Short of getting the Adobe font and comparing the two 
> files (which is not practical) is there any way to tell if these are
> original works or not?

Trouble is, there are two parts to the protection: (a) trademark on the
name and (b) copyright on the program.  Some (not all) of the names you
listed are trademarks, so if you're finding fonts with those names,
chances are very high it's a stolen font.  The way to find out whether the
font program is pirated involves comparison of the code, which is tedious...
I'm assuming that a pirate would be smart enough to take out the copyright
notices.  You might start by checking the unique-id values between your
fonts and the licensed ones (e.g., from Adobe) - a match would be awfully
suspicious.

At this point, it seems everybody's gonna have to figure out his own rules
for how to decide that a font on a BBS is "over the line".  I won't try to
tell you how you should decide it, but I'll tell you how I approach it:  I
won't take a font which has a name matching one I know to be trademarked,
because I know the font at least violates the letter of the trademark law
and to me, certainly violates the spirit of fairness.  I feel pretty
strongly about that.  When I license a font from a legitimate source (one
which has licensed the trademark and the artwork), I have some reason to
think the designer gets at least a little bit of the result.  It may be a
pittance, but it's better than nothing, and it encourages (at least symbol-
ically) the creation of new fonts rather than the zero-innovation copying
of existing work.

A little further along that line of thinking, I won't buy a license to a
"knock-off" font under a different name (such as the various perversions
of Palatino), even where it's legitimate under current law.  Same reason
as above, especially because I'm paying money for the license:  I want the
money going to "the right place."  (This applies to obviously unique
designs, like Palatino, but not to the various "revival" families like
Caslon, Garamond, and such, where *all* the designs are attempts to re-
capture the essence of a very old piece of work.)
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind.