Xref: utzoo comp.fonts:397 misc.legal:6293
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!mejac!gryphon!richard
From: richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,misc.legal
Subject: Re: copying fonts
Message-ID: <8443@gryphon.COM>
Date: 5 Nov 88 19:51:56 GMT
Reply-To: richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 45

In article <1988Oct31.183632.14050@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <13120@oberon.USC.EDU> crum@lipari.usc.edu (Gary L. Crum) writes:
>>By the way, is it legal to build and use a PostScript font from commercially
>>printed material using an outline-tracing tool? ...
>
>Pirating a font in this manner is not illegal in the US; font names are
>protected by trademark but font outlines are unprotected.  The situation
>is different in some other countries.  You may also want to consider
>whether what you propose is ethical, as opposed to merely legal.

Not only that, but apparantly the bitmaps and outline binaries
themselves can't be copyrighted according to this little blurb:

[**** begin included material ****]

Well, here it is.  Check out the Oct 11 issue of MacWeek, page 55:

    US Copyright Office Denies Protection for Digitized Typefaces

"The US Copyright Office last month sent a resounding no to font publishers
seeking copyright protection for digitized typefaces.

"The decision, reached after almost three years of deliberation, denies
type publishers copyright protection for 'computer instructions or data
that specify fixation or depiction of typeface or letter form.'"

It goes on to say that this not only covers bit-map font data, but outline
font descriptions as well, and that the only current recourse for type
publishers would be to go to Congress and get a law passed.  The reason
given for the decision is the Copyright Office's standing policy that
typefaces lack original authorship and have a distinct utilitarian
function.

     James Bayless
     New Horizons Software, Inc.

[**** end included material ****]

Does this mean I can go out and buy every font Adobe sells and slap
"fabulous flying font brothers" on them and sell them as mine ?


-- 
        ``You must have an IQ of at least half a million''  -- Popeye
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM    {backbone...err, well connected site}!gryphon!richard