Re: Fonts WG Charter feedback

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 7:41 PM, Robert O'Callahan<robert@ocallahan.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> I'm not seeing how that helps in any way, though.  Let's look at two
>> situations, one with same-origin restrictions and one without.
>>
>> 1. Alice creates a site and purchases a font to use on it.  Bob sees
>> the font, likes it, and wants to use it on his own site.  Same-origin
>> restrictions are in place, though, so he looks at the stylesheet to
>> find where the font is located on the server, downloads it to his own
>> server, and links to his copy in his stylesheet.
>>
>> 2. Alice creates a site and purchases a font to use on it.  Bob sees
>> the font, likes it, and wants to use it on his own site.  Since there
>> are no same-origin restriction, he looks at the stylesheet to find
>> where the font is located on the server, then links to Alice's server
>> in his stylesheet.
>
> In situation 1, Bob has obviously and deliberately copied the font. In
> situation 2, he has not.
>
> I'm not lawyer, but it seems to me the legal and ethical issues in situation
> 1 are clearer than in situation 2.

Indeed, I alluded to that a little bit later in my email where I
stated that the extra step may constitute another 'garden fence', in
which case there may be some perceived benefit to the foundries.

You do bring up a good point, though, that the *legal* implications of
that extra step may indeed be significant, especially since the large
majority of our sitting judges are completely clueless about this
whole 'internet' thing (at least in the US, though I suspect it's
similar everywhere).

In any case, I *want* same-origin restrictions, so if it counts a lot
for font foundries, I'm happy.

~TJ

Received on Monday, 6 July 2009 02:18:07 UTC