IMHO, ebook font embedding is a grey area, because traditional licensing agreements usually don't explicitly cover this subject.
For example, Adobe distinguishes between the following license types:
No Embedding, Preview & Print, Editable and Installable. These licensing types are also encoded in most ttf and otf fonts.
If you install the
MS Font properties extension, you can check the embedding status by clicking the Embedding tab. For example, here are the embedding properties for one of Microsoft's most beloved fonts:
However, finding a font with an Installable embedding license on your computer doesn't necessarily mean that you can embed it in your ebook, because the font might have been exclusively licensed by the OS manufacturer or the developer of the program that installed it. It's usually safe to assume that
all commercially available fonts need to be licensed.
BTW, there lots of great free fonts available from
Font Squirrel and
SIL, many of which are also used in commercial ebooks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cybmole
How do you manage / licence / control that mess ?. If I bought the book, which contains the font, can I legally copy that font to a different folder on my device & apply it to other books - I suspect not, but I would not fancy having to write the controlling legalese for that situation.
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Embedded fonts are usually obfuscated and since you'd need to remove the DRM to deobfuscate the font, I guess both are technically equally illegal.