Mark D Lew wrote:
David Bailey wrote:
I just read the EULA for Microsoft Office and there is
no section restricting the use of the fonts to just
Office applications. [...]
It says nothing about what can be done with the fonts
when the applications aren't running. [...]
Thanks for providing the relevant portion of the EULA for
us, David.
This brings us back to the semantic issue I mentioned
with regard to the word "font".
If you print out your resume in Word then hand it out to
someone to read, you may think you're still "using" the
"font", in the layman's sense of the word equivalent to
"typeface". But in fact, the font is the bit of
programming that draws those characters, not the print on
the page. You were using the font when you were printing,
but now that you're done printing you're not actually
using the font anymore.
In any way that ordinary users use fonts, I'm not sure
it's even possible to use the fonts when the software
isn't running.
What the license does *not* allow is for a programmer to
copy the font data and build it into some new software
he's writing. That's pretty clearly what they're telling
you not to do, and the bit about embedding provides a
clearly delineated exception for files like PDFs that
have to carry the font information with them.
mdl _______________________________________________
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I agree with Mark about the fact that the font is the data
file, and as such the license only applies when the software
is running.
One semantic tidbit is that Microsoft says "when *the* [my
emphasis] software is running . . ." being fairly specific
with the use of the word 'the' -- it could simply have said
"when software is running" which would imply any software at
all, not a specific set of software. At the very start of
the EULA, there is the following text:
"These license terms are an agreement between Microsoft
Corporation (or based on where you live, one of its
affiliates) and you. Please read them. They apply to the
software that accompanies these license terms, which
includes the media on which you received it, if any."
So from the start Microsoft is stating that all the EULA
pertains only to this specific software (Office 2007 in this
case) and so any references to "the software" in the clause
about the fonts would apply only to their use with this
specific software.
Or not, as the lawyers would argue endlessly for hours on
end at $200 and up per hour apiece. :-)
--
David H. Bailey
dhbai...@davidbaileymusicstudio.com
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