Re: Web Fonts

> It's perhaps the same as any other licensing issue of the web, such  
> as licenses to reproduce images on a website. In practice, I'm not  

The big difference is that the number of sites that might be
expected to reproduce a good commercial font is much larger than
the number likely to want to reproduce a stock image, but recognizing
the use of the font may require more skill.

> As I see it, there are many potential routes for font foundries to  
> control the redistribution of their fonts: Centralising the location  
> and only allowing downloads when the referrer header is on an  
> approved list of licensed sites? DRM? Trust and honesty? I think so  

Anything Referrer based raises privacy issues.  A number of
people destroy Referer information in their requests to prevent
its use for click trailing and search keyword discovery.  Basically,
it is not a good idea to standardise features that depend on 
Referer.

What you haven't mentioned is the method actually used for current
embedded fonts in IE, namely that the font file has an embedded list
of URL stems from which it may be downloaded and licensed users of
the font create copies or subsets for their site with just the stems
from which their site is served.

Part of the problem with trust and honesty is that the web is an area
where the public perception of copyright law is very much laxer than
the true legal position.

Received on Friday, 18 August 2006 06:47:33 UTC