Re: CSS3 @font-face / EOT Fonts - new compromise proposal

Hello Thomas,

thank you for your answer.

Is there a written proposal for MAME already? I think I may have missed it …

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 11:20 PM, Thomas Lord <lord@emf.net> wrote:
> That's not about bugging users but about
> helping two parties who are interacting
> communicate with one another more effectively.

Well, in this case there are at least three parties interacting then.
The visitor of the website, the creator of the website and the
copyright owner of the font being used. But guess which party the
website visitor is not aware of interacting with when visiting a
website. So it could be confusing for the visitor.

Who defines the rules "if the embedding context isn't as expected"?
Let's say company Foo Inc. buys a Bar 47 font at foundry ACME Fonts
for the use in their print products and on their website foo-inc.com.
Some years later they decide to buy a domain foo.biz and move their
website there. Will Foo Inc be able to adjust the domain? Or will they
have to ask ACME Fonts to do so? What if ACME Fonts has ceased to
exist meanwhile?

I am not saying MAME is a bad idea in general. The way you describe it
it /could/ be helpful. But first I would like to have a look at it. I
think there are some additional points to be taken care of:

*The rules to detect "if the embedding context isn't as expected" need
to be absolutely failsafe.*
It would be a desaster for a commercial website if some visitors are
confronted with "this website might use unlicensed fonts" messages by
error. Who would trust a company that does does not play by the rules?

*Companies using licensed fonts need to be sure about the future use
of this font.*
The companies must be able to use the font as long as they wish. Even
if they change their company name or their domain name. Even if the
foundry closes down.

*Those "educational messages" need to be crafted carefully.*
As I tried to explain above: website visitors are likely to be unaware
that they are communicating with a font copyright owner as well when
visiting a website. And as most people don't /read/ messages but
/scan/ them chances are that they mistake those messages for a
warning.


Regards,
Mirko Gustony

Received on Friday, 14 November 2008 08:39:43 UTC