Xref: utzoo comp.fonts:408 misc.legal:6376
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From: jimb@dhw68k.cts.com (Jim Bacon)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts,misc.legal
Subject: Re: copying fonts
Message-ID: <15034@dhw68k.cts.com>
Date: 11 Nov 88 08:39:13 GMT
References: <8443@gryphon.COM>
Reply-To: jimb@dhw68k.cts.com (Jim Bacon)
Organization: Wolfskill residence; Anaheim, CA (USA)
Lines: 50

In article <8443@gryphon.COM> richard@gryphon.COM (Richard Sexton) writes:
>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.
>
>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 ?
>
My company is a supplier of fonts in soft and cartridge format for laser
printers and we are very concerned about this too.  I have recently dumped
the data from an HP cartridge and from a competitors replacement and
the only difference I found was the copyright noticed had been changed.
The bitmaps and header data were identical in all other instances.

I wrote to the Copyright Office, Washington D.C., attn: Dorothy Schrader,
and received the actual policy decision from Sep. 28 this year.  Ms.
Schrader said that no recourse is possible thru copyright, but action
might be brought along lines of fair trade practices, trade secret law, etc.

of course, one can always sue the Copyright Office, she said also, and try
to get the policy reversed in the courts. :-)

It is irritating to see this practice of copying fonts permitted.  We have
invested a substantial amount of time into obtaining licensed fonts, and
I do not like the prospect of having all of my products copied without my
being able to stop it.


Newsgroups: comp.fonts,misc.legal
Subject: Re: copying fonts
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References: <8443@gryphon.COM>
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Reply-To: jimb@dhw68k.cts.com (Jim Bacon)
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Organization: Wolfskill residence; Anaheim, CA (USA)
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-- 
"Shoot first, and call whatever   |             Jim Bacon, Anacom General Corp.
 you hit the target!"             |                {turnkey,zardoz}!anacom1!jim
                        L. Long   |                         jim@anacom1.tcc.com