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In the US, "typefaces", ie. the shapes of the letters, generally are not. "Fonts", ie. the programs that draw the letters, are copyrighted as software, as somet
by mikedc 5y ago
In the US, "typefaces", ie. the shapes of the letters, generally are not. "Fonts", ie. the programs that draw the letters, are copyrighted as software, as something of a workaround. For more reading on the history here Typographica has a succinct overview[0].
[0] https://typographica.org/on-typography/copyright-protection-of-typefaces/ https://typographica.org/on-typography/copyright-protection-...
- tomrod 5y agoPoint stands. These ought to not be royalty driven.
- mikedc 5y agoI'm not sure I follow. Whether or not the typeface is eligible for copyright, the pricing model and terms of use are at the discretion of the font creator.
- chipotle_coyote 5y ago"How a font is sold is up to the discretion of the font creator" and "a font should not be sold on a sliding cost scale" aren't mutually exclusive -- the latter's pretty clearly asserting an opinion about reasonable pricing models and terms of use. There are a lot of things people do that they're perfectly within their rights to do that someone else might strongly believe they shouldn't, right? Personally, I don't like the idea of selling fonts with costs governed by web page impressions, either, no matter how common it may be in the industry. I genuinely like having what I consider to be nice typefaces for my web sites, but this kind of licensing makes it incredibly impractical for me to use most commercial options.
- mikedc 5y agoOf course, but the "point" in question is whether a typeface (or font) should be copyrightable.
- alberth 5y agoSilly question, so how do type foundries prevent someone from literally copying the TTF, WOFF, EOT files - and then rebrand a font as their own? Will the bits/bytes of a TTF be different if two people produced identically the exact same shape of the letters? EDIT: let me clarify a bit. The GP said that the shape of the letters is not copyrighted in the US. Which implies to me that if Helvetica has the exact shape of the letter "s" to be like so, and if I were to manually trace the exact same shape (curves, width, height of the letter, etc) that I can do that and resell it (or open source it) What I'm asking is, what prevents someone from skipping the step all together of tracing every letter in the Helvetica alphabet and instead, just digitally copies the TTF font file? Would the TTF font file I create from a manual tracing of the Helvetica alphabet be different than if I simply digitally copied the official Helvetica TTF file?
- Santosh83 5y agoLicenses are generally sold to medium sized to large companies who would not risk legal action pursuing what you suggest. There is money to spread around anyway. Fonts and branding are nothing compared to the upkeep for C-level execs.
- kube-system 5y agoThe same way any company prevents you from copying any computer program and rebranding it as your own. Lawyers. Vector fonts count as computer programs.
- mikedc 5y agoUsers agree to a EULA which stipulates how they can and can't use the font. This contract provides the legal basis on which a foundry would pursue someone for suspected misuse. Here's Monotype's EULA for Helvetica Now[0], Section 9 specifically addresses copies and derivative works. From there, it becomes a legal matter. [0] https://www.fonts.com/font/monotype/helvetica-now/licenses# https://www.fonts.com/font/monotype/helvetica-now/licenses#
- alberth 5y agoBut how can you differentiate a Helvetica created font file from a font file where I manually traced every Helvetica alphabet identically.