Re: Fonts WG Charter feedback

Thomas Lord wrote:
> > On Fri, 2009-07-03 at 22:39 +0200, karsten luecke wrote:
>> >> Are you (Thomas Lord) implying that some type designers 
>> >> or foundries try to "kick out" collegues just by asking
>> >> browser developers to only support a font format that not
>> >> everybody can produce?
> > No.

Then what please DID you say when you wrote

> There is a lot of talk to the effect that concerns TTF/OTF support will lead to "accidental piracy" are the main motivation for resistance to TTF/OTF. I am beginning to believe that that is not really the motivation but, rather, exclusion by incumbents against potential competitors is the driver.

?

As reminder, three of your mails in chronological order, all of around 3.7.:

[1]
> A "problem" in the minds of some may be that if TTF and OTF are required then new commercial and non-commercial markets would likely follow for web fonts that work with all popular applications, yet which are not restrictively licensed.
>
> In other words, demand would rise for fonts with fewer restrictions and supply would follow, diminishing the pricing power of vendors of restricted-license fonts.

[2]
> If, tomorrow, IE suddenly supported TTF/OTF the market I described would exist and have a lot of potency since there would be room for trade in font files that work in all major browsers and with all major desktops, printers, etc.
>
> In contrast, if tomorrow EOT became the standard, the appeal - the attraction of that market - would be significantly less and for a long time to come.
>
> There is a lot of talk to the effect that concerns TTF/OTF support will lead to "accidental piracy" are the main motivation for resistance to TTF/OTF. I am beginning to believe that that is not really the motivation but, rather, exclusion by incumbents against potential competitors is the driver.

[3]
> New entrants to the market, however, would have stronger incentive to enter the market with looser licensing.  That is my suspicion: that TTF/OTF is being resisted in an attempt to exclude such new entrants.

My quote was taken from #2. And #3 confirms my reading of #2.
Funny that you declare foundries' concerns as not being backed up enough and at the same time cut discussion short with quick "No."

Btw, there is a flaw in your argument. What "new entrants to the market" are you speaking of?
Typefaces don't fall from the sky. Irrespective of format or licensing questions, they are designed by designers who have the ideas, skills and patience to do so. Who else should these "new entrants" be than other designers who will also ask for compensation of their work?

Cheers,
Karsten

Received on Monday, 6 July 2009 17:42:56 UTC