Quote:
Originally Posted by cybmole
well it's interesting. I guess font licencing never anticipated such things as sony e-readers & PRS+ firmware.
so the traditional model is: publisher buys font licence then prints & sells as many books as they can.
that model presumably applies also to e-book publishers - publisher pays to embed font into ebook....
But now we have the option for readers to add fonts directly to their devices ( via firmware) & then do geeky stuff which cause them to appear in books.
I have never wanted to , but I understand that a truly enterprising geek could rip that font out of a paid-for book in which a copy is embedded, & re-use it.
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.
also, I see that I have that linotype font thingie in Windows / MS office,( so I "paid" for it when I bought windows, or Office ) - so can I legally print & sell books written in Word, using it? When I convert my word doc to an ebook in order to sell that, do I cross a legal line somewhere ?
the Baen example, IMHO, neatly ducks this - in effect it says this book would look nicer in font X, so we've specified it as 1st choice in the CSS, but hey - getting the font licenced onto your device, dear reader, is your problem, not ours
PS I am not planning any blatant acts of piracy here, I am just curious about how it is all regulated
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Hi:
Well, that's a blog post and a half, all by itself, but I'll try to answer it with some amount of competence here.
Traditional model is, yes, publisher buys font and uses it on however many books. He's not "redistributing" the font, as the font can't be used by whomever buys the print book.
BUT, when you make an ePUB, of course, you are redistributing the font, because it's being embedded, in its entirety, in the ePUB. And yes, "enterprising" (ahem) geeks or even semi-geeks could rip open an ePUB and abscond with the font, just as they could with the content, OR simply by going to any of a dozen font rip-off sites. I don't/can't do anything to regulate that, any more than I personally or corporately run around and chase down content pirates, although we do embed "stuff" in the ePUBs that help identify copies that came from our shop, for the use of our customers. We're digital-age equivalents of printers, not publishers--so we don't do the chasing of pirates.
With regard to licensing, our contract text states that we rely upon the publisher (the author or imprint) to license the font, as it is of course they who are doing the distribution, not us. When I receive a font file, unless I see overt and obvious signs that it's been bootlegged, I presume my client's innocence. (Some, bless their hearts, send me their receipts/license agreements.)
You cannot copy/legally use the font in that book for your own use; it's licensed only to be applied in THAT book, by THAT publisher, for you to enjoy reading--not re-using.
If you have Linotype Palantino in Windows, (or a Mac font suitcase), that font has been licensed/purchased by Microsoft or Apple, for their redistribution to YOU, only, and for your personal use only. You may use it to type a book, and even "print" it in PDF to be printed at, say, Createsapce. IF, however, you try to use it for an ebook, two things will happen--you won't (I'm assuming no hacks here) be able to actually "embed" that font, so it won't work in an ePUB, because they're encrypted, essentially. You can use 'em, but you can't actually suck the font files out of your Win7 box or Mac and put them in your ePUB as font files. (Trust me--we've had so many clients who tried, it's almost a running joke around here--"Ye Gods, it's another transmission from the Font Suitcase!," which inevitably results in files with right-sounding file names--but nada in the files themselves.) So, yes--if you try to make an eBook with, say, Palatino from your Word options, that's crossing a line.
I honestly have no idea how Baen works, or...are you saying that they tell you to go out, download the font files from "FontsrUs" and upload them on your reader? OMG,
, I cannot imagine the average e-reading buyer from, say, Amazon or B&N doing this. I can see the MReaders doing it, but the average e-reading customer? NFW. (No Freaking Way.)
Here's a grey area to which I do not know the answer: if you buy an ePUB with Palatino, and you rip it apart, and put Palatino on your computer,
Only for your own enjoyment, is THAT crossing the line? Or, one step further, if you use it to type a manuscript, is THAT crossing the line? I truly don't know. I suspect most font creators would not pursue that, unless/until you then turned around and tried to re-distribute it AGAIN for another eBook. At that point, they would assuredly get cranky, I'm sure. However, I don't know how the licensing works to that level of minutiae (about using it on your home computer, say, as a font for Word.)
I don't know if I helped?
Hitch