lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (07/15/90)
In <25900@usc.edu>, papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes: >In article <26A0CB70.1155@ics.uci.edu> rang@ics.uci.edu (Roger Penaranda Jr. Ang) writes: >>In article <1771@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes: >>> >>>Interestingly enough, fonts are not copyrightable. >>>-larry >> >>I remember reading a CACM article where this lawyer argued that a font >>could be copyrighted as a "data compilation." He also complained that >>the copyright laws for data compilations made them the vertible black >>hole of copyright law, almost anything could go into it. > >Well, you're both wrong. Fonts per se are NOT copyrightable. Not to pick nits marco, but I am not wrong, as you note in the rest of your posting. -larry -- The raytracer of justice recurses slowly, but it renders exceedingly fine. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) (07/16/90)
In article <26A0CB70.1155@ics.uci.edu> rang@ics.uci.edu (Roger Penaranda Jr. Ang) writes: >In article <1771@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) writes: >> >>Interestingly enough, fonts are not copyrightable. >>-larry > >I remember reading a CACM article where this lawyer argued that a font >could be copyrighted as a "data compilation." He also complained that >the copyright laws for data compilations made them the vertible black >hole of copyright law, almost anything could go into it. Well, you're both wrong. Fonts per se are NOT copyrightable. *Programs* that generate fonts ARE. Just a few months ago, Adobe Systems successfully registered copyrights on the "programs" that generate most of their PostScript fonts. The font bitmap themselves are NOT copyrightable, and in fact they can be freely copied without any restriction, SAVE for the fact that most font names are TRADEMARKED, and therefore cannot be used. The usual practice of bitmap font distribution is to copy the bitmap, and rename the font. This is perfectly legal and has been done by everybody (including companies with 3 or 5 letters names :-) -- Marco -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= "Xerox sues somebody for copying?" -- David Letterman -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=