Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!fluke!kurt
From: kurt@tc.fluke.COM (Kurt Guntheroth)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: copyright infringement for fonts
Message-ID: <2515@fluke.COM>
Date: 18 Dec 87 16:53:06 GMT
Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 15

Warning:  I am not a lawyer, and if I was I would deny it.

Someone asked "How do you prove that someone copied the design of a font,
and not the binary?"

Well, with software, you do the following:  Convert the original software
and the new software to a common file format.  This is necessary if (for
example) the amiga and macintosh (both tm.) used different file formats.
At any rate, you would end up with bit maps of the fonts in the same order
(row or column).  Then you use a sophisticated comparison program to measure
their similarity.  These are similar to the programs used to compare strands
of DNA, and give a percentage measure.  Then you take the result to court,
arguing that the binaries would not be so similar unless they had simply
been reformatted.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  It depends on
the judge/jury, phase of the moon, and other arcane legal factors.