4 ms·

My very, very loose understanding is that bitmap fonts in the US have a bit of a special protection against copyright, with the logic being that their public ut

My very, very loose understanding is that bitmap fonts in the US have a bit of a special protection against copyright, with the logic being that their public utility outweighs the benefit of enforcing these restrictions. Vector fonts not so much, but as these are all in PNG form, they seem exempt: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/fonts-faq/part2/ http://www.faqs.org/faqs/fonts-faq/part2/ IANAL, this is a US-based understanding and other countries have different rules, clarification welcome, other usual disclaimers, etc.

ctdonath 6y ago
Having dealt with font legalities (IANAL) while writing a bare-metal printer driver: rendered characters are not copyrightable. Method of rendering may be, but not final output.
- kqr 6y ago
  So does a bitmap specifying which pixels to light up count as a rendered character or a method of rendering?
  - frabert 6y ago
    Maybe, but that's definitely not copyrighted by the font maker.
    - deelowe 6y ago
      So is it illegal to host the Menlo font on github? It's my preferred monospace font, but can be sometimes hard to find and there several "open" copies. That claim to not be encumbered. Isn't there also "non-free" font repos in debian?
userbinator 6y ago
Vector fonts not so much, but as these are all in PNG form, they seem exempt I believe this is also why all the free vector fonts (that look almost if not exactly identical to famous, $$$ ones) can exist with no legal trouble --- if someone renders to bitmap a paid font and then traces it, the resulting vector font is then considered a work of that person instead. In other words, the copyright is on the exact point positions, and not the final shape; so any series of points that reproduces that shape will do.
- bombcar 6y ago
  That’s an interesting point - if a work goes through a non-copyrightable version you can copy subsequent derivative works and make your own copyrightable thing.

ctdonath 6y ago

Having dealt with font legalities (IANAL) while writing a bare-metal printer driver: rendered characters are not copyrightable. Method of rendering may be, but not final output.

kqr 6y ago
So does a bitmap specifying which pixels to light up count as a rendered character or a method of rendering?
- frabert 6y ago
  Maybe, but that's definitely not copyrighted by the font maker.
  - deelowe 6y ago
    So is it illegal to host the Menlo font on github? It's my preferred monospace font, but can be sometimes hard to find and there several "open" copies. That claim to not be encumbered. Isn't there also "non-free" font repos in debian?

userbinator 6y ago

Vector fonts not so much, but as these are all in PNG form, they seem exempt I believe this is also why all the free vector fonts (that look almost if not exactly identical to famous, $$$ ones) can exist with no legal trouble --- if someone renders to bitmap a paid font and then traces it, the resulting vector font is then considered a work of that person instead. In other words, the copyright is on the exact point positions, and not the final shape; so any series of points that reproduces that shape will do.

bombcar 6y ago
That’s an interesting point - if a work goes through a non-copyrightable version you can copy subsequent derivative works and make your own copyrightable thing.