On 25/07/05, David W. Fenton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 25 Jul 2005 at 7:02, Noel Stoutenburg wrote: > > Mark D Lew wrote: > > > > > Regarding copyrights on fonts, the current guiding case is Adobe vs > > > SSI (1998), which you can read online at > > > <http://directory.serifmagazine.com/Ethics_and_Law/Copyright/ > > > judgement.php4>. > > > > > > The law is pretty straightforward, neither illogical nor > > > complicated. When you load a "font" on your system, what you are > > > loading is not the typeface per se, but a small bit of specialized > > > software that tells the computer how to draw all the characters > > > within that typeface. > > > > and indeed, I am familiar with Adobe v. SSI; I would assert that the > > U.S. Supreme Court decision is illogical and complicated for this > > reason. The court held that SSI infringed software copyrights because > > the files manipulated by SSI were "small bit[s] of specialized > > software". . . . > > I don't have time this afternoon to look at the decision but it > strikes me as wrong to call a font definition file a "program." It's > actually *data* to be used by some other program. > > And so far as I am aware, you can't copyright data. > > So, that would suggest to me that the case was wrongly decided > because of an invalid distinction between computer program and data.
Well, even though it isn't an executable program (which is the definition that, of course, first springs to mind when the word "program" is used), a font is still "programmed" in terms of determining the font characters' relationships to the baseline, determining the exact curves used in the typeface, etc. It may bear resemblance to "data" in that it just sits there in storage, but I can see the court's point in labeling it a "program" in that it is a manipulable and interactive presentation of information. -- Brad Beyenhof [EMAIL PROTECTED] my blog: http://augmentedfourth.blogspot.com Life would be so much easier if only (3/2)^12=(2/1)^7. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
