You Wouldn’t Think It, But Typeface Piracy Is a Big Problem

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by GERGE

I believe typeface piracy is as big a problem as the e-book piracy.

This is about the only sentence in your post with which I can agree.

Both are essentially trivial. Provide the goods in a convenient form and at a reasonable price, and people won't bother with unauthorised copies.

Unauthorised personal use of typefaces is probably widespread, because typefaces are priced for commercial use.

Consider, for example, a nice new body text font like Isolde(TM). £129.60 for me to be able to use the family of 4 faces on my desktop machine (and up to 4 other computers).

Very, very few home users will pay that sort of money. I might consider paying up to £5 for such a family of fonts for personal use. But no such license is available.

Ideally people will use the open/free alternatives instead of piracy. Whether that actually happens, I don't know.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Tricky one that though, even I have no idea which fonts on my computer are open source and which need a license.
Come to think of it I'm not even sure which law protects a font.

Open the font folder (in windows: Control panel: Fonts): Properties: Details tab: Copyright

If you have an 'Office' type suite (eg Wordperfect 8 pro), you have personal use of any of those hundreds of fonts on the accessory CD.

If you want a headache, start reading the license terms. They are by Foundry. And they vary, a whole lot

[GrannyGrump]

Re: Distribution of fonts ---
This can be a very frustrating thing when you upload ebooks.

Many wonderful fonts were created or digitally-reproduced in the 1990's, when the consideration of re-distribution was only for "font-collection cds" (very occasionally those have readme files stating not to distribute For Sale --- I don't know for sure how to extrapolate that into free ebook embedding.)

Many freeware creators only mark their fonts "copyright 1995 Joe Blow", with no indication of licensing at all.

Very often, freeware fonts don't even have a declared copyright, only that they were created with "program such and so" (I have a nasty mind, and tend to think those were pirated and offered for download illegally.)

Thank heaven for Google Fonts and the Open Font Library at fontlibrary.org and for Font Squirrel (though Font Squirrel fonts need some judicious examination to be certain of end-user rights). The SIL Open Font License is a wonderful thing, and so many beautiful fonts are available under that license--- but sometimes you want a novelty or specialty font, and can't find quite the right one...

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by theducks

Open the font folder (in windows: Control panel: Fonts): Properties: Details tab: Copyright

Of course, you being in the US means that is meaningless as typefaces are covered by a design patent, not copyright

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Of course, you being in the US means that is meaningless as typefaces are covered by a design patent, not copyright

While's it's true that typefaces themselves (the shapes of the characters) are not covered by US copyright law, the computer software that implements a typeface as software (i.e. a digital font that includes more than just outlines, such as Adobe Type 1, TrueType and OpenType) is copyrightable.

"[...] in 1992, the US Copyright Office [...] determined that the latest digital outline fonts in fact had elements that could be protected as software. Since that time, the Office has accepted registration of copyright for digital vector fonts, such as PostScript Type 1, TrueType, and OpenType format files."