(Accidentally sent off-list. Merged with a follow-up also accidentally sent off list. Please can we have reply-to-list as the default.)
IANAL, TINLA. The "typographic arrangement of a work" is the layout of a book, not the design of a typeface. It is this that has a term of 25 years. I assume the rationale is that it is an incentive/protection for publishers who invest in nice design for books despite the underlying texts being public domain or by authors who might switch to a different publisher. But see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyrights#Typefaces "England recognized copyright in typeface at least as early as 1916.[14] The current United Kingdom copyright statute, enacted in 1989, expressly refers to copyrights in typeface designs.[15] The British law also applies to designs produced before 1989." The part of the act that deals with the artistic design of typefaces is here: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/plain/ukpga_19880048_en_content.htm#pt1-ch3-pb7 This does mention 25 years. But only in the context of marketing materials. As for copyright on font programs, the code of the font is copyrighted the same as any other program. A font program will have the same copyright term as any other program AFAIK. And a software licence can be applied to it. This is a separate issue from copyright on the underlying typeface design. Most resources will talk about typeface designs when they actually mean font programs, and it's important to recognize when they are doing this. - Rob. _______________________________________________ Openfontlibrary mailing list Openfontlibrary@lists.freedesktop.org http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/openfontlibrary
