mgresham@artsnet.UUCP (Mark Gresham) (02/05/90)
In article <3507@csccat.UUCP> larry@csccat.UUCP (Larry Spence) writes: >In article <1680@adobe.UUCP> mills@adobe.COM (Dan Mills) writes: >>Here's the press release: >> >>Mountain View, Calif. (January 24, 1990) -- Adobe Systems incorporated >>announced today that it has received what it believes to be the first >>copyright registration for a typeface program in the United States. In >>registering Adobe's ITC Garamond(R) font computer program, the U. S. >>Copyright Office has recognized that Adobe's PostScript(R) typeface programs >>are original works of authorship like any other copyrightable computer >>program. >>[...] > >I'm not entirely clear on what this means in practical terms. >[...for instance a situation...] Note the word 'registration' in the above news release. In practical terms, it means that the U.S. Copyright office has determined that at least *something* about the typeface program is *registerable* with them. Yet the hairsplitting of what all of that actually means (where all the borders are and what are legal gray areas) will have to be decided in the courts whenever a suit is eventually brought forth concerning those issues of copyright. In basic practical terms, it means Adobe now has a leg to stand on in court, whereas before it had none. Those 'what if' situations will have to arise in such a way that several laywers become quite rich before we can know much more about what it *really* means! Cheers, --Mark ======================================== Mark Gresham ARTSNET Norcross, GA, USA E-mail: ...gatech!artsnet!mgresham or: artsnet!mgresham@gatech.edu ========================================