[comp.sys.mac.misc] What is copyright status of modified fonts?

ddaniel@lindy.Stanford.EDU (D. Daniel Sternbergh) (10/06/90)

Having grown frustrated with the occasional inadequacies of Times and
Symbol fonts, I'm in the process of using Fontographer to design a
supplemental font, based on Times and Symbol, but including characters
used in Materials Science (and other disciplines): things like
stress rate, shear rate, strain rate, Burgers vectors, barred numbers
for Miller indices, arrows that show a fast forward reaction with a
non-negligible reverse reaction, stuff like that.

Since these characters are intended to be used in technical papers
which are primarily written in Times and Symbol fonts, they are mostly
composites based on the two other fonts.  Can I do that without
violating Adobe copyrights?  What are my rights to the modified font?
Should I use it only for my own work?  Can I distribute it to the rest
of my department, and beyond?  Can I ask a ShareWare fee for it?  Do I
have to change the Adobe fonts a little bit for them to be considered
different?  Or do I have to start from scratch trying to come close to
the Adobe font by eye to call it my own?

Daniel