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Cool font site

fmg

fmg

New Member
Thanks for posting.
What amazes me is that I see a lot of these fonts available on the web at no charge.
Then someone comes along lifts the fonts and sets up a website and charges mad prices for them.
Surely this is illegal no?
 
The Vector Doctor

The Vector Doctor

Chief Bezier Manipulator
fmg said:
Thanks for posting.
What amazes me is that I see a lot of these fonts available on the web at no charge.
Then someone comes along lifts the fonts and sets up a website and charges mad prices for them.
Surely this is illegal no?
Click to expand...

You may have this backwards. Usually the fonts are offered for sale first. The free font sites that have commercial fonts on them have pirated them or renamed them in hopes of avoiding legal troubles
 
fmg

fmg

New Member
The Vector Doctor said:
You may have this backwards. Usually the fonts are offered for sale first. The free font sites that have commercial fonts on them have pirated them or renamed them in hopes of avoiding legal troubles
Click to expand...

Gotcha.
Thanks for correcting me. I can never work it out what's going on with those free font sites.
Thanks for the heads up.
 
Jim Doggett

Jim Doggett

New Member
fmg said:
Gotcha.
Thanks for correcting me. I can never work it out what's going on with those free font sites.
Thanks for the heads up.
Click to expand...

It's simple really. Lettering (our written language) is in the public domain. So you cannot copyright a font, only the name. (Helvetica for example.) Call Helvetica something different, such as Swiss, and you're legal and have no obligation whatsoever to the orginator of the Helvetica type style.
 
Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
fmg said:
Gotcha.
Thanks for correcting me. I can never work it out what's going on with those free font sites.
Thanks for the heads up.
Click to expand...

What happened was that the US Courts ruled in 1989 that a typeface could not be copyrighted because the western alphabet is in the public domain. Only the font name could be protectd under trademark law. This extended to all design aspects of a type style and threw open the doors for font piracy. Lots of bucks were made and several major foundries went bankrupt. lots of folks lost their jobs and careers.

Nine years later, Adobe finally got the legal principle established that font vectors were mathematical formulas and should receive protection under patent law.

Judge Issues Ruling on Font Copyright

February 5, 1998 - A landmark decision ruling fonts copyrightable was issued today by U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte of San Jose, California.

As visitors to the ITFI (www.typeindex.com) know, the lack of typeface copyright protection has been a focus of the type industry for many years. While the United States claims to be a world leader in intellectual property protections, its outdated determination that the design aspect of type fonts cannot be subject to copyright has begun to crumble thanks to the efforts of Adobe Systems (www.adobe.com).

Typefaces are viewed by US law as a utilitarian device, much like a pencil or hammer, and do not meet current copyright guidelines. The issue before the court was if a font file is a formula defining a typeface or a software program.

Judge Whyte wrote in the decision: "The fact that a computer program produces unprotectable typefaces does not make the computer program itself unprotectable." Font designers "make creative choices as to what points to select based on the image in front of them on the computer screen."

Southern Software, the company sued for using the data from over 1000 fonts from Adobe to create its own ‘knock-off’ fonts, used the fact that fonts have not been protected by copyright as reason for their admitted ‘lifting’ of font data from Adobe and others files.

Judge Whyte blocked that defense by referring to the "creativity in designing the font software programs."

The type industry was quick to react to the news. Brian Willson of Three Island Press (www.3ip.com) said to the ITFI “I'm thrilled with Judge Whyte's ruling. Sure, it only pertains to "font software programs" -- but the fact that the ruling confirms the "creativity in designing" these programs is, I hope, just a step away from acknowledging the creativity that's intrinsic in the font designs themselves.”

Willson added that the decision seemed “pretty obvious, to me. As a little guy whose font designs appear alongside Adobe's on the disputed product in question, I'm mightily encouraged by the ruling.”

Jack Yan, of Jack Yan & Associates (www.jyanet.com) and a lawyer in New Zealand, reacted to todays decision with happiness for his American counterparts. “While the United States still remains anomalous in protecting typeface designs per se, this judgment is welcome and one step closer to putting American typeface designers on the same playing field as their overseas counterparts. I applaud Judge Whyte in his reasoning and decision.”

A great deal was riding on this case for the type industry. If the case had been ruled in favor of Southern Software it would have been a serious blow to the type design market. Chris MacGregor, publisher of the Internet Type Foundry Index, type designer and member of TypeRight said “If this decision was in favor of Southern Software, type designers would end up keeping a closer watch on their own type designs, keeping them from the open market in an attempt to stop companies from ripping them off. The end result would have been bad for the industry and even worse for the consumer.”

James Brelsford, a lawyer with Hosie, Wes, Sacks & Brelsford (www.medialaw.com) who represented Southern Software, said "We are disappointed by todays court ruling. The court realizes that this is a cutting-edge issue and it is the first ruling on font copyright in regards to this technological vehicle for defining a font. The issue of ability to copyright a font should not be based on the vehicle in which the font is delivered. The court held a modicum of creativity on the part of the type designer in selecting points to define the font outline. The court only ruled on one font out of over 1000 because Adobe failed to carry its burden on the remaining fonts. We are considering asking the court to certify the decision to an appellate court for immediate review. Otherwise we will likely appeal at the appropriate time.”

In response to todays court ruling type designers across the globe are celebrating victory. From the virtual offices of TypeRight (www.typeright.org) came the statement “We're all very happy with today's news.”

Note: The Adobe font which the court based his decision on was Utopia.
Click to expand...

What followed was a gradual and regular reclaiming of intellectual property rights by the foundries or the font designers.

In summary, the usual scenario is that the paid, commercial version came before the free, pirated version.
 
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