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From: greenber@swatsun (Peter Greenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: PostScript standard?
Message-ID: <1304@thebes.swatsun.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Oct-87 10:15:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: thebes.1304
Posted: Tue Oct  6 10:15:37 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Oct-87 23:01:41 EDT
References: <535@micas.UUCP> <15085@topaz.rutgers.edu> <170@viper.Lynx.MN.Org>
Organization: Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA
Lines: 40
Summary: I don't think "Adobe" fonts are copyrighted, only their descriptions are.
Xref: mnetor comp.graphics:1230 comp.windows.misc:72

In article <170@viper.Lynx.MN.Org>, dave@viper.Lynx.MN.Org (David Messer) writes:
> In article <255@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> zwicky%tut.cis.ohio-state.edu@osu-eddie.UUCP (Elizabeth Zwicky) writes:
>  >So it would be possible to write one's own
>  >PostScript-like language interpreter. It could in fact, duplicate
>  >the functionality of Adobe's PostScript identically.
> 
> Not quite, it couldn't duplicate the Font's that Adobe uses,
> they are copyrighted.  They could have the same form-factor
> however.

I just reread a long and detailed paper by one Charles Bigelow posted to the
Usenet earlier this year. Bigelow is a professor of digital typography at
Stanford.
(Sorry folks, more advanced reference not available.)
The gist of what he said (as I have heard from others) is that fonts cannot
be protected by copyright law and generally are not patented as well. Font
names can be trademarked, meaning that in general I can imitate a font made
by you but cannot call us the same thing. Also, the *description* of fonts
can be copyrighted, just like computer programs can be so protected. So the
byte by byte representation of Adobe's font dictionaries (around which elaborate
security precautions have been built into the PostScript language) are protected
by copyright.

What this all means to a PostScript cloner could take printed representations
of the "Adobe" fonts (all of which, I think, were originally developed by
others, like IBM (Courier) and ITC (several)) and reduce them to curves himself 
(not at all a trivial undertaking). The cloner could then incorporate these
new font descriptions into his new language legally, so long as he gave them
new names. BTW, PostScript(tm) accomodates bit-map fonts too, and the Hershey
outline fonts by NBS are available for little or nothing, so you can make due
without curving anything.

All this is speculative and does not consider any ethical stuff which you
should consider. Look before you leap.
fonts into his language legally so long as he endowed them with new names.
-- 
Peter Greenberg, ImClone Systems, 180 Varick St., 7th Fl. New York, NY 10014
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I work for ImClone, graduated from Swarthmore, neither cares what I say.