Adobe, Adobe, Adobe, Adobe, Adobe.

Bill McCoy wrote:

>lots of things, which are excerpted below.


I think it's fair to say that the success of PostScript is due not only 
to Adobe's unmatched commitment to product development, but to their 
savvy recognition of the fact that any vehicle which promotes the 
encouragement of this platform is in the company's best interest. Adobe's 
studied decision to discontinue the locked downloader in 1988 encouraged 
the dissemination of PostScript fonts, and helped to establish PostScript 
as a de facto industry standard. Does the epidemic of font piracy do any 
different?



Jonathan Hoefler
The Hoefler Type Foundry, Inc
www.typography.com


>John Hudson wrote:
>
>>the font _is_ installed in the user's system, that's how they are able to 
>print
>>a PDF file. 
>
>Yes, on certain platforms (i.e., Macintosh) an extracted font may be
>transiently made available to the system. But, embedded fonts are never
>permanently installed into the system by Acrobat... thus I stand by my
>original statement.
>
>>We can strip a fully functional font from a PDF file in a matter
>>of seconds
>
>So what? Any ten year old can copy any standard U.S. commercial software
>install disk in a manner of seconds. Most likely they can copy your font
>disks as well. A decade ago, commercial shrink-wrapped software was
>universally copy protected in the U.S. - but it didn't stop hackers and it
>did piss off legitimate customers.
>
>You have the right to license your type any way you want, and Acrobat today
>makes it clear that font embedding should be enabled only if your fonts are
>licensed appropriately. Our authoring software respects the TrueType
>embedding bits, which will be enhanced and extended in OpenType for both
>TrueType and Type 1 technologies. And, different markets may require
>different behavior (i.e., copy protection is still common in Japan, and so
>we also support font outline encryption for Japanese fonts, which we hope to
>strengthen in OpenType). So yes of course you should be able to "opt out" of
>the system - legally and/or technically. I only argue that your moral high
>ground is not sufficient justification for placing requirements on a
>standards-based Web font solution that would either impair the solution or
>delay its implementation. 
>
>A couple of other minor points from your messages:
> 
>- font programs *can* be copyrighted in the U.S., something that Adobe and
>Bitstream helped fight for.
>
>- there is plenty of high-quality raster-based art on the Web. And, plenty
>of vector graphics as well. In PDF files (though I guess you'll happily pick
>on Acrobat for this also), VRML files, CAD files, etc. We need technical
>protection for *all* intellectual property on the Web - it's just not going
>to happen overnight.
>
>--Bill
>

Received on Monday, 12 August 1996 15:21:31 UTC