altman@sbcs.sunysb.edu (Jeff Altman) (01/29/91)
Corel has posted to Compuserve a Patch for one of the problems related to converted WFN to ATM fonts. I will try to upload it to cica tomorrow. It is called WFNPCH.LZH and requires the LHARC.EXE file that comes with Corel Draw to use it. The patch causes WFN Boss to generate unique font ID numbers for each subsequently generated font. There was another patch that was supposed to fix a problem with extra lines being generated when converted fonts were displayed and printed but that was removed because it didn't work on all printers. Corel is going to release an Update when they fix the known problems. Also, the question has been posed to Corel as to who owns the fonts that are created with WFNBoss. They have not yet responded but I will let you know when they do. The general question goes like this, since Corel provides about $1500 worth of fonts by Adobe prices and a means of converting their WFN fonts to ATM or other formats, does Corel own the fonts once they are converted? If so, how much alteration is required to remove their ownership? If a WFN is saved to a new format, loaded and altered to add hinting info, do they still own it? Etc? If someone reads the Corel response before I do, or if I miss it please post it here. Thanks. - Jeff (jaltman@ccmail.sunysb.edu) -- - Jeff (jaltman@ccmail.sunysb.edu)
andrew@frip.WV.TEK.COM (Andrew Klossner) (02/07/91)
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"since Corel provides about $1500 worth of fonts by Adobe
prices and a means of converting their WFN fonts to ATM or
other formats, does Corel own the fonts once they are
converted? If so, how much alteration is required to remove
their ownership?"
I don't know the answer to the first question. As for the second:
copyright law includes the concept of "derived work." If you start
with a copyrighted object, the degree of change is irrelevant; the
result is a work derived from the original object, and is the property
of the original object's copyright holder.
For example, if you fire up your word processor, suck in the latest
Star Trek novel, delete all words except the initial "The", and proceed
from there to write your own novel, the result does not belong to you.
(Yes, it's irrational. That's the law. The biggest mistake you can
make when dealing with legal matters is to try to use reason about it!)
Something like this font question came up a few years ago with regard
to synthesizer patches. A few dozen bytes was sufficient to completely
characterize an interesting sound (e.g., "screaming bagpipes".) Synth
users wanted to load a patch, diddle with it to get a new, interesting
sound (which often bore no audible resemblance to the original), and
claim ownership of the result. They couldn't.
Contrariwise, it seems that you can take a recipe out of a copyrighted
cookbook, diddle with it, and claim ownership of the result. There
seems to be a body of case law about cooking recipes that subjects them
to nonstandard rules.
-=- Andrew Klossner (uunet!tektronix!frip.WV.TEK!andrew) [UUCP]
(andrew%frip.wv.tek.com@relay.cs.net) [ARPA]