Re: Fonts WG Charter feedback

On Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 9:18 AM, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Wed, 1 Jul 2009, Håkon Wium Lie wrote:
> > Given commitment from MS to do TT/OT, I can live with this proposal:
> >
> >
> http://blog.fontembedding.com/post/2009/06/10/New-Web-Fonts-Proposal.aspx
>
> Wouldn't operating systems just build support in for these fonts, making
> the entire exercise pointless? I mean, I assume FreeType would support
> these fonts natively almost immediately, and I see no reason to suspect
> that Apple wouldn't add support for this new format to Mac OS X too, since
> it would aid developers significantly if they could see these fonts in
> other applications once they've acquired them.
>

Let's be perfectly blunt. If this proposal were adopted then the issue of
whether these Web fonts can be trivially used on desktops is no longer our
problem, it moves to the OS vendors. That's a big win for browsers and for
the Web. Foundries will probably find Apple and Microsoft desktop OS groups
easier to deal with than us. I assume they don't care much about what
happens on free desktops.

To be even more blunt, if we adopt this proposal and a lot fonts are
licensed for it, then it doesn't matter if later the obfuscation becomes
completely ineffective. The cat will be out of the bag.

Rob
-- 
"He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." [Isaiah
53:5-6]

Received on Wednesday, 1 July 2009 22:38:19 UTC