> Fonts are copyrighted. However, strictly speaking, it is the name of
> the font rather than the actual font itself that is copyrighted. So,
> technically, you could duplicate a font and distribute it under a
> different name. This is being looked at by various copyright
> authorities across the world, so don't trust this as a reliable
> tactic! Ethically of course, this "copy & rename" strategy is a
> no-no!
This changes so much that I can't be sure, but last I heard this was the
story with copyrighting fonts:
The letter forms are not copyrightable. They are viewed as having primarily
"utilitarian" value only, and are therefore not protected under copyright
law. IMHO this is silly, and has dire ramifications for all industrial
design, but hey, the Bern folks never asked me.
However -
OUTLINE fonts ARE copyrightable, not as letter forms but as software. Since
they contain descriptions of the math needed to render the letter forms,
outline fonts (as opposed to bitmap, which I just don't see very often
anymore) are considered a form of "executable code", and are protected as
with any software program.
Again, I haven't followed this issue closely in the last few years, so it
may have changed again, but that's how I last heard it.
More than just renaming the code, running it through a tool like
Fontographer may fully satisfy the requirements, since doing so will, if
done properly, cause the code to be regenerated in a different form,
hopefully substantially different enough to avoid copyright conflicts.
Since this practice of making "knock off" fonts this way had become rather
popular, this may have given rise to the perception that merely changing the
name is all that's required -- since the law doesn't recognize letter forms
as a creative work, to the user the only discernable difference is the name
(even though the underlying code may be very differently structured).
But as they require us to say here in Kalifornia:
"I am not an attorney. If you need the services of an attorney you should
contact a qualified professional in your area."
;)
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Media Corporation
Multimedia Design and Development for Mac, Windows, UNIX, and the Web
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