Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!central!letni!rwsys!spudge!johnm
From: johnm@spudge.UUCP (John Munsch)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: How to tell a pirated PostScript font?
Message-ID: <29033@spudge.UUCP>
Date: 8 May 91 17:22:50 GMT
References: <28986@spudge.UUCP> <1991May6.225858.5945@ico.isc.com>
Reply-To: johnm@spudge.UUCP (John Munsch)
Organization: Friends of Guru Bob
Lines: 32

In article <1991May6.225858.5945@ico.isc.com> rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
>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.

This is not a flame against Dick Dunn but against all the people who didn't
bother to read what I said in my original posting.

I distinctly said in my original posting that comparing to the actual fonts
from Adobe was out of the question.  If I had the real fonts (all $1900
worth according to my latest Adobe catalog) I wouldn't be looking at PD
fonts... would I!  And yet, it has been suggested to me that I compare the
file sizes, compare font IDs, and even print out samples of each at 72 pt.
and compare the outlines!

No kidding, I think I could have discerned that all by myself.  What I want
to know is if there is a way to check WITHOUT owning the typefaces from 
Adobe to compare.

I could really care less about the issue of names of fonts, and I know that
people can legally create fonts that "look" like other fonts, but I don't
want fonts that are just stolen from Adobe (or whomever).  If these fonts
that I have are ones that individuals have created independently I want to
use them, otherwise I'm sure I can do without.

John Munsch