Re: svg fonts as web font format?

Philip TAYLOR wrote:
> 

> of the prime causes of opposition to font DRM.  If
> I buy the TrueType version of Linotype Times-Roman,
> should I really need to buy another licence if one
> of my applications requires instead that the font
> be in Type-1 format ?  I believe not, just as I

There is a branding/design integrity issue here, as well as a copyright 
one.  Truetype and Type 1 use different splines (one cubic and one 
quadratic) and use radically different hinting mechanisms.  The result 
of a conversion is a degraded font, and I doubt that many commercial 
designers would consider it acceptable to use their font in any form 
that does not work exactly like the form in which it left them.

> believe that I have every right to save a commercial
> DVD in DixV format /for my own personal use/,

This was and still may be illegal in the UK; legislation to make it 
legal (at least for the CD to MP3 case) was being discussed earlier this 
year and may now have been enacted.   What such legislation is really 
doing is giving into one small aspect of the conflict between how 
ordinary people think intellectual property should work and how IPR 
based businesses, and the law, believe it should work.

At least one of the fears of the font vendors must be that the man in 
the street will believe they have a moral right to use any font they 
find on the web (although such users are unlikely to buy, so maybe don't 
pose a real risk - I've heard rumours that some software vendors 
tolerate high levels of home user piracy, because it creates a market 
for the software from business users, who they can exploit for revenue).



-- 
David Woolley
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Received on Thursday, 13 November 2008 23:22:32 UTC