Re: Web Fonts

On Thursday 24 August 2006 13:56, Lachlan Hunt wrote:
> HÃ¥kon Wium Lie wrote:
> > Copyright is certainly an issue wrt. fonts. The name of a font can be
> > copyrighted, However, the outline of glyphs isn't protected. You can
> > -- in all relevant jurisdictions, I believe -- print out hi-res
> > renditions, scan the printouts and generate new font files.
>
> That seems backwards to me.  As far as I understand copyright issues,
> you can't copyright a name of any sort, but you can trade mark it.
> Considering that the glyphs are the actual artwork within the font, I
> believe copyright would protect them, and so wouldn't copying them in
> any way be a breach?

No fonts are not covered by Copyright for historic reasons. The names are 
protected by Trademark though. 
Note that only the font shapes, the font itself is not copyrightable. The 
binary font-file itself and the hinting can be copyrighted, just to make 
things confusing.

`Allan

Received on Thursday, 24 August 2006 12:22:58 UTC