Re: [ARSCLIST] Copyright and typefaces

[Mike Richter <mrichter@xxxxxxx>]

Don Cox wrote:
> On 24/03/07, Steven C. Barr(x) wrote:
>
>
> > > Since the PostScript file can be edited with a text editor, one could
> > > easily change the notice to assert rights of the person who created
> > > it - but is that legal? I wonder whether the original assertion is
> > > valid.
> > Well...your copyright applies ONLY to the font (i.e. the shape and
> > design of the characters). Any information you make available over the
> > internet or on some digital storage medium is NOT copyrighted... but,
> > should someone make that same data available using your copyrighted
> > font, it is the LETTERS/NUMBERS/USW. that are violating copyright...
> > NOT the information itself!
>
> In most countries, the design of a font cannot be copyrighted, but the
> code to produce it _is_ copyright.

I rarely re-enter a thread, but want to confirm that Don Cox is correct 
here, at least for the U.S. It is quite legal to duplicate a copyrighted 
font by scanning in samples and re-creating the code (which will, of 
course, differ to some extent from the original). I have done something 
akin to that when I found an 'old time' font which needed some changes 
to serve for a specific task.

The process seems to me parallel to that of "sampling" audio, but the 
legal situation is quite different. (So, perhaps, we are not as far off 
topic as I had thought.)

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/