rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) (12/10/87)
I've recently converted a whole bunch of Macintosh fonts to the Amiga
format and I'd like to put them on a public domain font disk. However,
I can see where there might be a few legal problems with doing this...
So my question is this, which Mac fonts (if any) could I release without
being sued to bits?
-Rico
--
...{watmath|allegra|decvax|ihnp4|linus}!utzoo!oscvax!rico
or oscvax!rico@gpu.toronto.EDU if you're lucky
[NSA food: terrorist, cryptography, DES, drugs, CIA, secret, decode]
[CSIS food: supermailbox, tuna, fiberglass coffins, Mirabel, microfiche]
[Cat food: Nine Lives, Cat Chow, Meow Mix, Crave]cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa) (12/15/87)
In article <546@oscvax.UUCP> rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) writes: >I've recently converted a whole bunch of Macintosh fonts to the Amiga >format and I'd like to put them on a public domain font disk. However, >I can see where there might be a few legal problems with doing this... >So my question is this, which Mac fonts (if any) could I release without >being sued to bits? > I think most of the fonts released by Apple are either copyrighted by Apple itself, or licensed to them by ITC, Adobe or others. This is especially true of some laser fonts, like ITC Garamond and Zapf. I'm no attorney, but I suspect that releasing those into the public domain could get you into trouble. There are also some really nice Shareware fonts, like Beverly Hills and Palencia (my favorite) out there. Perhaps the authors would be willing to strike some sort of deal with you. If, on the other hand, the fonts were originally released as true public domain stuff (no copyrights, etc) I don't see any problem. Good luck.
kim@amdahl.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (12/16/87)
In article <1308@uhccux.UUCP>, cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa) writes: > In article <546@oscvax.UUCP> rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) writes: > >I've recently converted a whole bunch of Macintosh fonts to the Amiga > >format and I'd like to put them on a public domain font disk. > > I think most of the fonts released by Apple are either copyrighted by > Apple itself, or licensed to them by ITC, Adobe or others. This is > especially true of some laser fonts, like ITC Garamond and Zapf. There has been several lengthy discussions of the copyrightability of fonts here on the net over the past couple of years. I have some of the old (and somewhat authoritative) information tucked away somewhere on a tape, and if there is sufficient interest, can dig it out and post or email it to interested people (if you send me a path to you relative to a backbone site). ARPA, BITNET, etc. paths are not likely to be successful, in my experience. Anyway, to summarize, it is my understanding that fonts themselves are NOT copyrightable. At least not in the US, and probably not in Canada. The *names* of fonts, however, may be Trademarked and/or Copyrighted. So, if that understanding is correct, all one has to do is give a given font a new name, and everything is legal. I will not discuss whether to do so is *moral* or not ... one must let their conscience be their guide (or their lawyer's :-) ). Elsewhere in the world, fonts may indeed be copyrighted, and I'm not at all sure how that affects things. I know this sounds weird, especially in North America where everyone is so lawsuit conscious, but I believe it really is that way. On the other hand, I am not a lawyer, so it would probably be best to check with one first (I suppose they *do* actually serve a useful purpose once in awhile). /kim [ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ] [ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ] -- UUCP: kim@amdahl.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,ihnp4,uunet,oliveb,cbosgd,ames}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CIS: 76535,25
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (12/16/87)
In article <1308@uhccux.UUCP> cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa) writes: >In article <546@oscvax.UUCP> rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) writes: >>I've recently converted a whole bunch of Macintosh fonts to the Amiga >>format and I'd like to put them on a public domain font disk. However, >>I can see where there might be a few legal problems with doing this... >>So my question is this, which Mac fonts (if any) could I release without >>being sued to bits? >> >I think most of the fonts released by Apple are either copyrighted by >Apple itself, or licensed to them by ITC, Adobe or others. This is >especially true of some laser fonts, like ITC Garamond and Zapf. >I'm no attorney, but I suspect that releasing those into the public >domain could get you into trouble. I believe Apple licensed them, but in itself doesn't own any font copyrights. Doesn't make much difference, because... (are you sitting down) ... you cannot copyright a font design in the U.S. (not sure about Canada) You can trademark a name (like Helvetica (tm)), and you can copyright the binary that is the font, but the design itself cannot be copyrighted. Sooo, you can scale up a font you like, blatently copy it, and do with it as you please. Sell it, etc. No shit. Now, how does one prove that a software publisher *converted* a font, or copied the design ? Clear as mud, eh, hoser ? (Ref. Chuck Bigelow's article on Font Copyrights published recently in comp.lang.postscript) -- "Well they say, that Santa Fe, is more, than 90 miles away" {ihnp4!crash, hplabs!hp-sdd!crash}!gryphon!richard || richard@gryphon.CTS.COM
akk2@ur-tut.UUCP (Atul Kacker) (12/16/87)
In article <1308@uhccux.UUCP> cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa) writes: >In article <546@oscvax.UUCP> rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) writes: >>I've recently converted a whole bunch of Macintosh fonts to the Amiga >>format and I'd like to put them on a public domain font disk. However, >>I can see where there might be a few legal problems with doing this... >>So my question is this, which Mac fonts (if any) could I release without >>being sued to bits? >> >I think most of the fonts released by Apple are either copyrighted by >Apple itself, or licensed to them by ITC, Adobe or others. This is >especially true of some laser fonts, like ITC Garamond and Zapf. If I understand it correctly, the copyright on fonts does not cover the font itself. It's the name that is copyrighted. If I take a printed copy of any of Adobe's fonts and create a machine readable version and then call it MyFont, there is nothing Adobe can do about it legally. The first issue of the Postscript Journal, I believe deals with this in greater detail. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Atul Kacker | Internet: akk2@tut.cc.rochester.edu | UUCP: {ames,cmcl2,decvax,rutgers}!rochester!ur-tut!akk2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
olson@endor.harvard.edu (Eric K. Olson) (12/16/87)
In a recent article peoples writes: >In article <1308@uhccux.UUCP> cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa) writes: >>In article <546@oscvax.UUCP> rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) writes: >>>I've recently converted a whole bunch of Macintosh fonts to the Amiga >>>format and I'd like to put them on a public domain font disk. However, >>>I can see where there might be a few legal problems with doing this... >>>So my question is this, which Mac fonts (if any) could I release without >>>being sued to bits? >>> >>I think most of the fonts released by Apple are either copyrighted by >>Apple itself, or licensed to them by ITC, Adobe or others. [Much deleted] Just to make matters more confusing, I have heard from more than one source that the Screen Fonts (the bitmaps used on the Mac screen) for the fonts in the Laserwriter (i.e., Courier, Times, Helvetica, Zapf Dingbats, but NOT New York, Cairo, Monaco, etc.) are placed in the Public Domain by Adobe. Note that this does not mean that the Laserwriter Postscript Spline Fonts are PD, just the screen representations. This would mean that you can copy those bitmap fonts to your hearts content, just stay away from Apple's own fonts. -Eric I am not affiliated. Eric K. Olson olson@endor.harvard.edu harvard!endor!olson D0760 (Name) (ArpaNet) (UseNet) (AppleLink)
kim@amdahl.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (12/17/87)
[ "Send lawyers, guns, and money ..." ]
OK ... I've already several requests for the information on font
protection that I mentioned I had, so here it is. I lost the
copy I made when it was originally posted by Pat Wood, but Richard
Sexton kindly sent me a copy a few months (thanks, Richard).
Further discussion should probably take place in comp.text, misc.legal,
or that new whatever.postscript newsgroup.
Please note that I am not advocating the copying or reproduction of
fonts ... just passing on some information as to the legality of doing
so.
/kim
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
To: amdahl!kim
Subject: Hello, yourself
Date: Sat Sep 19 16:24:17 1987
From: ames!ut-sally!cadovax!gryphon.CTS.COM!richard
Heres Chucks article. I dont think its a 'loophole' as I believe a loophohole
is unintentional, and the lack of copyright for font designs seems to
be quite intentional. (As Chuck points out, at least until the Japanese
start doing it :-)
------------------------------------------
Summary: Bigelow's article
From: patwood@unirot.UUCP (Patrick Wood)
Path: ihnp4!ptsfa!lll-lcc!styx!ames!rutgers!unirot!patwood
Organization: Public Access Unix, Piscataway, NJ
Newsgroups: comp.text,misc.legal
Date: 25 Mar 87 04:02:16 GMT
What the hell, let's do it now...
The following is an article published in an upcoming issue of the
PostScript Language Journal. Since a similar version of this was
posted by Charles about a year ago to the net, I don't think I'm
doing my readers a disservice in distributing it here prior to the
mailing of the Journal. I think this article covers the issues better
than anything I've seen on the subject of typeface protection.
Pat Wood
Editor, The PostScript Language Journal
-------------------------cut here and nroff/troff------------------------
COMMENTARY
Typeface Protection
By Charles Bigelow
Preamble
The main question of typeface protection is: `Is there anything there
worth protecting?' To that the answer must certainly be: `Yes.
Typeface designs are a form of artistic and intellectual property.'
To understand this better, it is helpful to look at who designs type,
and what the task requires.
"Who Makes Type Designs?"
Like other artistic forms, type is created by skilled artisans. They may
be called type designers, lettering artists, punch-cutters, calligraphers,
or related terms, depending on the milieu in which the designer works and
the technology used for making the designs or for producing the type.
`Type designer' and `lettering artist' are self-explanatory terms.
`Punch-cutter' refers to the traditional craft of cutting the master image
of a typographic letter at the actual size on a blank of steel that is
then used to make the matrix from which metal type is cast. Punch-cutting
is an obsolete though not quite extinct craft. Seeking a link to the tradition,
modern makers of digital type sometimes use the anachronistic term
`digital punch-cutter'. `Calligrapher' means literally
`one who makes beautiful marks'.
The particular marks are usually hand-written
letters, though calligraphers may design type, and type designers may do
calligraphy.
It usually takes about seven years of study and practice to become a
competent type designer. This seems to be true whether one has a Phd. in
computer science, an art-school diploma, or no academic degree. The skill
is acquired through study of the visual forms and practice in making them.
As with geometry, there is no royal road.
The designing of a typeface can require several months to several years.
A family of typefaces of four different styles, say roman, italic,
bold roman, and bold italic, is a major investment of time and effort.
Most type designers work as individuals. A few work in partnership (Times
Roman, Helvetica, and Lucida were all, in different ways, the
result of design collaboration.) In Japan, the large character sets
required for a typeface containing Kanji, Katakana, and Hirakana
induce designers to work in teams of several people.
Although comparisons with other media can only be approximate, a typeface
family is an accomplishment on the order of a novel, a feature film
screenplay, a computer language design and implementation, a major
musical composition, a
monumental sculpture, or other artistic or technical endeavors that
consume a year or more of intensive creative effort. These other creative
activities can be protected by copyright or other forms of intellectual
property protection. It is reasonable to protect typefaces in the same
way.
"The Problem of Plagiarism"
A lack of protection for typeface designs leads to plagiarism, piracy, and
related deplorable
activities. They are deplorable because they harm a broad range of
people beyond the original designers of the type. First, most type
plagiarisms are badly done. The plagiarists do not understand the nature
of the designs they are imitating, are unwiling to spend the necessary
time and effort to do good work, and consequently botch the job. They then
try to fob off their junk on unsuspecting users (authors, editors, and
readers). Without copyright, the original designer cannot require the
reproducer of a type to do a good job of reproduction. Hence, type quality
is degraded by unauthorized copying.
Secondly, without protection, designs may be freely imitated; the
plagiarist robs the original designer of financial compensation for the
work. This discourages creative designers from entering and working in the
field. As the needs of typography change (on-line documents and laser printing
are examples of technical and conceptual changes) new kinds of
typefaces are required. Creative design in response to such needs
cannot flourish without some kind of encouragement for the creators. In a
capitalist society, the common method is property rights and profit.
In a socialist
(or, in the past, royalist) society, the state itself might employ type
artists. France, as a monarchy and as a republic has had occasional state
sponsorship of typeface design over the past 400 years. The Soviet Union
has sponsored the design of new typefaces, not only in the Cyrillic alphabet,
but also in the other exotic scripts used by various national groups in the
Soviet Union.
Those who would justify plagiarism often claim that the type
artists do not usually receive a fair share of royalties anyway, since
they have usually sold their designs to some large, exploitive corporation.
It is true that type designers, like many artists,
are often exploited by their `publishers', but plagiarism exacerbates the
problem. Plagiarism deprives the designer of decent revenues because it diverts
profits to those who merely copied the designs. Plagiarism gives the manufacturer
yet another excuse to reduce the basic royalty or other fee paid for
typeface designs; the theme song is that the market determines
the value of the design and cheap rip-offs debase the market value of a face.
For those interested in the economic effects of piracy, it is clear that
plagiarism of type designs ultimately hurts individual artists far more than
it hurts impersonal corporations.
"Kinds of Protection for Type"
There are five main forms of protection for typefaces:
1. Trademark
2. Copyright
3. Patent
4. Trade Secret
5. Ethics
Trademark. A trademark protects the name
of a typeface. In the U.S., most
trademarks are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The
R in a circle after a trademark or tradename indicates U.S.
registration. The similarly placed TM indicates that a trademark is
claimed, even if not yet officially registered. However, a trademark may
be achieved through use and practice, even without registration. Owners of
trademarks maintain ownership by use of the trademark and by litigation to
prevent infringement or unauthorized use of the trademark by others.
As a few examples of registered typeface trademarks, there are Times Roman
(U.S. registration 417,439, October 30, 1945 to Eltra Corporation, now
part of Allied); Helvetica (U.S. Registration 825,989, March 21, 1967, also to
Eltra-Allied), and Lucida (U.S. reg. 1,314,574 to Bigelow & Holmes). Most
countries offer trademark registration and protection, and it is common
for a typeface name to be registered in many countries. In some cases the
registrant may be different than the originator. For example, The Times New
Roman (Times Roman) was originally produced by the English Monotype
Corporation. In England and Europe, most typographers consider the design
to belong to Monotype but the trademark was
registered by Linotype (Eltra-Allied) in the U.S., as noted above.
Trademark protection does not protect the design, only the name.
Therefore, a plagiarism of a design is usually christened with a pseudonym
that in some way resembles or suggests the original trademark, without
actually infringing on it. Resemblance without infringement can be a fine
distinction.
Some pseudonyms for Times Roman are: `English Times', `London',
`Press Roman', `Tms Rmn'.
Some for Helvetica are `Helios', `Geneva', `Megaron',
`Triumvirate'. So far, there seem to be none for Lucida. There are
generic typeface classifications used by typographers and type historians
to discuss styles, trends, and categories of design. Occasionally these
apparently innocuous classification systems are employed by plagiarists
to devise generic pseudonyms, such as `Swiss 721' for Helvetica, and
`Dutch 801' for Times Roman. It is not certain whether this usage of a
generic classification is more for clarification or for obfuscation. In
general, the proper tradename is a better indicator of identity, quality,
and provenience in typefaces than a generic name. Some people believe that
the same is true for other commodities such as wine, where taste is important.
A trademark usually consists of both a proprietary and a generic part.
For example, in the name `Lucida Bold Italic', `Lucida' is the proprietary
trademark part and `Bold Italic' is the generic part. The generic word
`type' is usually understood to be a part of the name,
e.g. `Lucida Bold Italic type'.
Sometimes a firm will append its name or a trademarked
abbreviation of it to the typeface name, to achieve a greater degree of
proprietary content, e.g. `B&H Lucida Bold Italic'.
A related matter is the use of the name of a type's designer. A firm that
(ethically licenses a typeface will often cite the name of the designer
e.g. Stanley Morison (with Victor Lardent) for Times Roman, Max Miedinger
(with Edouard Hoffmann) for Helvetica, Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes for
Lucida. Although a person's name is not usually a registered trademark,
there are common law restrictions on its use. The marketing of
plagiarized type designs generally omits the names of the designers.
Although Trademark is an incomplete kind of protection, it is used
effectively (within its limitations) to prevent the theft of type names.
Certain traditional typeface names, usually the surnames of illustrious
designers like Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville,
Bodoni, and others have become generic names in the public domain.
Trademark protection of such names requires the addition of some
proprietary word(s), as with these hypothetical creations,
`Acme New Garamond', or `Typoluxe Meta-Baskerville'.
Copyright. Copyright of typefaces can be divided into two parts:
copyright of the design itself; and copyright of the font in which the
design is implemented. In the U.S., typeface designs are currently not
covered by copyright. This is a result of reluctance by the copyright
office to deal with a complex field; by lobbying against copyright by
certain manufacturers whose profits were based on typeface
plagiarism; and by a reluctance of congress to deal with the complex issue in
the recent revision of the copyright law.
The reluctance of Americans to press for typeface copyright may have been
influenced by a feeling that typeface plagiarism was good for U.S.
high-tech businesses who were inventing new technologies for printing, and
plagiarizing types of foreign origin (Europe and England). If the situation
becomes reversed, and foreign competition (from Japan, Taiwan, and Korea)
threatens to overcome American technological superiority in the laser printer
industry, then American firms may do an about-face and seek the protection of
typeface copyright to help protect the domestic printer industry. Such a
trend may already be seen in the licensing of typeface trademarks by
Adobe, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Imagen, and Xerox in the U.S. laser printer
industry.
In Germany, where typeface design has always been a significant part of
the cultural heritage, and where typefounding has remained an important
business, there are more than one kind of copyright-like protections for
typefaces. Certain long-standing industrial design protection laws have
been used to protect typeface designs in litigation over royalties and
plagiarisms. Further, there is a recent law, the so-called
`Schriftzeichengesetz' enacted in 1981, that
specifically protects typeface designs. New designs are registered, as
is done with copyright in most countries. This law only protects new,
original designs. It is available to non-German designers and firms.
Therefore, some type firms and designers routinely copyright new designs
in West Germany. This gives a degree of protection for products marketed
in Germany. Since multinational corporations may find it cheaper to
license a design for world-wide use rather than deal with a special case
in one country, the German law does encourage licensing on a broader scale
than would initially seem to be the case.
France, like Germany, has ratified an international treaty for protection
of typefaces. This 1973 Vienna treaty will become international law when
four nations ratify it. So far, only France and West Germany have done so,
and thus a design must be protected separately in each country. Even when
the treaty becomes law, it will take effect only in those countries that
have ratified it. The treaty was principally the work of the late Charles
Peignot, a French typefounder, and John Dreyfus, an English typographer
and typographic scholar. Presently, typefaces may be registered for
protection in France under a 19th century industrial design protection law.
In the U.S., there continues to be some movement for typeface design
protection. A proposed bill that would protect the designs of useful
articles, like type, has been in committee for several years. It seems
to be going nowhere.
Digital (as opposed to analog) fonts may be protected by
copyright of digital data and of computer programs. It has been
established that computer software is copyrightable. Therefore, software
that embodies a typeface, e.g. a digital font, is presumably also
protected. There is some objection to this kind of copyright, on the
grounds that the ultimate output of the program or the result of the data
(i.e. a typeface design) is not copyrightable. However, the current belief
expressed by the National Commission on New Technological Use of
Copyrighted Works is that software is copyrightable even if its function
is to produce ultimately a non-copyrightable work. Hence, typefaces produced
by Metafont or PostScript, two computer languages which represent fonts
as programs, are presumably copyrightable. Typefaces represented as bit-map
data, run-length codes, spline outlines, and other digital data formats,
may also be copyrightable. Some firms do copyright
digital fonts as digital data.
Note that the designs themselves are still not protected in the U.S. A
plagiarist could print out large sized letters (say, one per page) on an
Apple LaserWriter, using a copyrighted PostScript digital font, and then
redigitize those letters by using a scanner or a font digitizing program
and thus produce a new digital font without having copied the program or
digital data, and thus without infringing the copyright on the font. The
quality of the imitation font would probably be awful, but it wouldn't
violate copyright. Of course, the plagiarist would need to rename
the font to evade trademark infringement. (As I write these
words, I have the guilty feeling that I have just provided a recipe for
type rip-off, but others have obviously thought of just such a scheme
(John Dvorak has even proposed something like it in one of his columns.)
Design Patent. The designs of typefaces may be patented in the U.S. under
existing design patent law. Many designs are patented, but type designers
generally don't like the patent process because it is slow, expensive, and
uncertain. Nevertheless, some type do get patented, and it is a form of
potential protection. Note that this is Design Patent (the typeface
doesn't have to be a gizmo that does something, it merely has to be unlike
any previous typeface. The drawback here is that most attorneys and judges
are not aware that there are more than two or three typefaces: say,
handwriting, printing, and maybe blackletter. Therefore, litigating
against infringement is an educational as well as a legal process.
It is easy to see that typeface theft is more subtle than knocking over
a liquor store; it may not be illegal and the returns may be greater.
Protections like design patent are available in many other countries, but
there is not an international standard (to my knowledge) so the situation
must be examined on a country by country basis.
Invention Patent. Methods of rendering typefaces can be patented as
mechanical or electronic inventions. For example, the old hot-metal
Linotype machinery was protected by various patents, as was the IBM Selectric
typewriter and type ball. IBM
neglected to trademark the typeface names like Courier and Prestige, so
once the patents had elapsed, the names gradually fell into the public
domain without IBM doing anything about it (at the time, and for a dozen
years or so, IBM was distracted by a major
U.S. anti-trust suit). Most students of the type protection field believe
that those names are probably unprotectable by now, though IBM could still
presumably make a try for it if sufficiently motivated.
There is currently a noteworthy development regarding a patent for
outline representation of digital type as arcs and vectors, with special
hardware for decoding into rasters. This patent (U.S. 4,029,947, June 14,
1977; reissue 30,679, July 14, 1981) is usually called the Evans & Caswell
patent, after its inventors. It was originally assigned to Rockwell, and
in 1982, Rockwell sued Allied Linotype for infringement. Allied settled
out of court, having paid an amount rumored to be in the millions.
Rockwell sold the patent, along with other typographic technology, to
Information Internation, Inc. (III) which then sued Compugraphic for
infringement. According to the Seybold Report, a respected typographic industry
journal, Compugraphic recently settled out of court for $5 million.
Although many experts believe the patent to be invalid because of several
prior inventions similar in concept, it nevertheless seems to be
a money-maker in corporate litigation. The Seybold Report has speculated on
which firms III would litigate against next. Among the candidates suggested by the
Seybolds was Apple for its LaserWriter, which uses outline fonts. Since
the entire laser printer industry and the typesetting industry is moving
toward outline font representation, Apple is certainly not alone. The
Seybolds further speculate on whether the difference between
character-by-character CRT typesetting and raster-scan laser typesetting
and printing would be legally significant in such as case. Ultimately,
some firm will hold out for a court judgement, and the matter will be decided.
Trade Secret. Given that typeface designs have relatively little copyright
protection in the U.S., they are often handled as trade secrets. The
secret must apply to the digital data or programs only, because the images
themselves are ultimately revealed to the public as printed forms. It is
much more difficult to reconstruct the formula of Coca-Cola from its taste
than it is to reconstruct the design of Helvetica from its look on the
page. The exact bitmap or spline outline of a digital font is usually not
reconstructable from the printed image, although CRT screen fonts at usual
resolutions (60 - 120 dots per inch) may be reconstructed by patient
counting and mapping of bits off a screen display. Typeface
licenses often contain stipulations that the digital data will be encrypted and
confidential.
Just as a firm will protect the secret of a soft drink recipe, so a type
firm will protect the exact nature of its digital data.
Ethics. Some typographers are motivated by higher principles than greed,
profit, expediency, and personal interest. Idealists enthused with
concepts of ethical behavior and a vision of typography as a noble art may
find it distasteful to use plagiarized types. Some graphic
designers insist on using typefaces with bona-fide trademarks, both to
ensure that the type will be of high quality, and to encourage creativity
and ethics in the profession. A consequence of plagiarism that is
sometimes overlooked is a general erosion of ethics in an industry. If it
is okay to steal typeface designs, then it may be okay to purloin other kinds
of data, to falsify one's resume, to misrepresent a product, and so forth.
Most professional design
organizations attempt to promote ethical standards of professional
behavior, and personal standards may extend to avoidance of plagiarisms.
The Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) is an international
organization of type designers, type manufacturers, and letterform
educators. Its purpose is to promote ethical behavior in the industry,
advancement of typographic education, communication among designers, and
other lofty aims. Members of ATypI agree to abide by a moral code that
restricts plagiarism and other forms of depraved behavior (pertaining to
typography). These are noble goals, but some members (especially
corporate members) of ATypI, confronted with the pressures and
opportunities of commercial reality, nevertheless plagiarize typefaces of
fellow members, the moral code notwithstanding. Since ATypI is a voluntary
organization, there is very little that can be done about most such
plagiarism. Some years back, a world-famous type designer resigned
from the ATypI Board of Directors in protest over the organization's
flaccid attitude toward the plagiarists among its ranks. He has since agreed
to sit on the board again, but criticism of the organization's inability
to prevent type rip-offs by its own members, not to mention by
non-members, continues to be heard. Moderates in ATypI believe that a
few morals are better than none. It is not clear whether their
philosophical stance derives from Plato, Hobbes, or Rousseau.
Given the general attitude of the public toward copyrighted video and software,
it is doubtful that ethical considerations will hinder most end-users'
attitude to plagiarized type fonts. A desire to have the fashionable
`label' or trademark may be a greater motivation toward the use of
bona-fide fonts than an ethical consideration.
"Further Reading"
`The State of the Art in Typeface Design Protection', Edward Gottschall,
Visible LanguageP, Vol. XIX, No. 1, 1985. (A special issue on
`The Computer and the Hand in Type Design' (proceedings of
a conference held at Stanford University in August, 1983).
IDer Schutz Typographischer Schriftzeichen, by Guenter Kelbel.
Carl Heymans Verlag KG, Cologne, 1984. (A learned account in juridical
German prose, of the significance of the Vienna Treaty of 1973 and the
West German Schriftzeichengesetz of 1981).
Disclaimer:
These notes were originally prepared at the request of Brian Reid for
informal distribution. They are based on the author's review of available
literature on
the subject of typeface protection, and on personal experience in
registering types for trademark, copyright, and patent. However, they are
not legal advice. If one is contemplating protecting or plagiarizing a
typeface, and seeks legal opinion, it is advisable to consult an attorney.
The term `plagiarize' and words derived from it
are used here in its dictionary
sense of `to take and use as one's own the ideas of another' and does not
mean that the practice of typeface plagiarism is illegal;
that is determined by the laws of a particular country.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Bigelow is a professor of digital typography at Stanford
University and a
professional designer of original digital typefaces for electronic
printers and computer workstations. Mr. Bigelow and his partner
Kris Holmes designed the Lucida typeface family which is now
widely used on various laser printers.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Chuck B. is the font hippie I met at SIGGRAPH -- Richard J. Sexton
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[ Any thoughts or opinions which may or may not have been expressed ]
[ herein are my own. They are not necessarily those of my employer. ]
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CIS: 76535,25lee@uhccux.UUCP (Greg Lee) (12/17/87)
How about posting routines/procedures for converting the Macintosh fonts for the Amiga? Then everyone with access to a Mac could post a few converted fonts. Spread the risk -- if there is any.
keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) (12/19/87)
In article <1333@uhccux.UUCP> lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes: > >How about posting routines/procedures for converting the Macintosh >fonts for the Amiga? Then everyone with access to a Mac could >post a few converted fonts. Spread the risk -- if there is any. I would think that MAC fonts downloaded from Compu$erve or other bbs's would not be copyrighted by Apple. Whether or not Compu$erve claims ownership of them may be a different matter.... Keith Doyle # {ucbvax,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!keithd Contel Business Systems 213-323-8170
peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (12/22/87)
[long and involved message omitted -- see the References line for more info] Ok, so then the question becomes... ... if one wants to license high quality types for a computer that the owner of the types isn't interested in doing a port for, what is one to do? This applies equally to using Mac fonts for the Amiga, to designing a Times Roman font for the Amiga, and to generating a London-like font (again) for the Amiga. Also, can anyone comment on the quality of the (I believe) public domain Hershey and NBS fonts? And I guess their PD status as well... -- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter -- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.
lee@uhccux.UUCP (Greg Lee) (12/27/87)
In article <1293@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >... > Also, can anyone comment on the quality of the (I believe) public >domain Hershey and NBS fonts? And I guess their PD status as well... It seems pretty clear that the Hershey fonts in NBS form or the form they assume in the posting in vol. 4 of mod.sources are public domain. The data for the occidental fonts was published in an NBS bulletin, and nothing was said there about restrictions on use. This data was distributed as part of a commercial program Fancy Font, and the accompanying documentation for the version I saw referenced the NBS publication, but made no mention of any restrictions on use of that data. The documents with the mod.sources distribution say that the National Technical Information Service does restrict the Hershey data, but only in the particular form in which NTIS distributes it (which is different from that of the mod.sources distribution). As to quality, they look nice enough at 300dpi on a laser printer, but not as nice as Computer Modern, to my eye. At 120dpi on a dot matrix printer or at 72dpi on a crt screen, without special provision for adjusting dots to a low-resolution raster, they're so-so. Clearly worse than what can be done with hand editing of dot matrixes. I haven't seen them on an Amiga screen -- I would expect some hand-editing of the dots to be necessary for legibility at such a low resolution. Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) (12/28/87)
Thanks to all who sent replies to my font inquiry, I tried to reply
to each any every one but I wasn't always able to reverse the path,
so if you didn't get a reply from me don't worry, my replies are
pretty boring anyway :-)
Having heard all the pros and cons of posting converted fonts I've
decided that the best thing to do is let you all decide which fonts
are safe to convert for yourselves depending on what country you
live in etc. So I've sent the sources/binaries for the conversion
package to purdue for posting to the sources/binaries groups.
-Rico
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