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But there is nothing that prevents anybody to build a similar product but charging a fee for it. The payment being "user data" is the problem. Not the product

But there is nothing that prevents anybody to build a similar product but charging a fee for it. The payment being "user data" is the problem. Not the product in and of itself. If you are in the EU such a platform would probably need to be GDPR compliant. I'm sure there is a opportunity for a font market that fulfills your needs. It might not be easy but eventually studios like you will probably have to charge clients an ongoing fee for "premium assets". The end user is paying for it and while you and your clients are probably fine with it, the lawmakers are obviously not.

j-pb 5y ago
With all due respect, your response doesn't make much sense. Google fonts is primarily a github repo with specifically licenced fonts. Google paid a lot of the artists and foundries behind these fonts for an open licence. Therefor there is no need to build a "similar product", when the existing one is alrady free as in free beer, without any hidden data-/ad-funding. We are are primarily a PRINT-MEDIA shop. Non of GDPR applies to this, non of our customers or customer clients pay for anything with their data, because paper doesn't have an uplink. Yet the google font project is as much key to our survival as sci-hub is for the scientific community.
- arlcode 5y ago
  Perfect than you can just continue to use Google Fonts as is. I suppose Google does not pay artists and foundries out of the goodness of their hearts. They pay them to earn money through user data. If this is illegal a different service will turn up eventually.
  - j-pb 5y ago
    I don't understand where you get this whole "service" idea from, but it clearly shows that you've never actually interacted with google fonts in any way. Any different "service", would have the EXACT SAME ISSUE: Hot-linking leaks user IP-Data to whoever hosts the hot-linked content. If you use the google fonts home page _as designed by google_ it already makes you download the fonts to self-host them along with your own sources. And as for their motivation, google fonts originated from android, because again licensing fonts plain sucks, and google has an incentive to make developing apps and websites as easy as possible in order to strengthen their ecosystems.
    - arlcode 5y ago
      No hotlinking fonts is okay if you have a valid data processing agreement with the service.
      - j-pb 5y ago
        Given the ruling that's doubtful, as there is no reason why it should be outsourced. "Datensparsamkeit"/Data-frugality is also part of GDRP, and completely besides the point of google fonts not being a service, nor conspiracy.

j-pb 5y ago

With all due respect, your response doesn't make much sense. Google fonts is primarily a github repo with specifically licenced fonts. Google paid a lot of the artists and foundries behind these fonts for an open licence. Therefor there is no need to build a "similar product", when the existing one is alrady free as in free beer, without any hidden data-/ad-funding. We are are primarily a PRINT-MEDIA shop. Non of GDPR applies to this, non of our customers or customer clients pay for anything with their data, because paper doesn't have an uplink. Yet the google font project is as much key to our survival as sci-hub is for the scientific community.

arlcode 5y ago
Perfect than you can just continue to use Google Fonts as is. I suppose Google does not pay artists and foundries out of the goodness of their hearts. They pay them to earn money through user data. If this is illegal a different service will turn up eventually.
- j-pb 5y ago
  I don't understand where you get this whole "service" idea from, but it clearly shows that you've never actually interacted with google fonts in any way. Any different "service", would have the EXACT SAME ISSUE: Hot-linking leaks user IP-Data to whoever hosts the hot-linked content. If you use the google fonts home page _as designed by google_ it already makes you download the fonts to self-host them along with your own sources. And as for their motivation, google fonts originated from android, because again licensing fonts plain sucks, and google has an incentive to make developing apps and websites as easy as possible in order to strengthen their ecosystems.
  - arlcode 5y ago
    No hotlinking fonts is okay if you have a valid data processing agreement with the service.
    - j-pb 5y ago
      Given the ruling that's doubtful, as there is no reason why it should be outsourced. "Datensparsamkeit"/Data-frugality is also part of GDRP, and completely besides the point of google fonts not being a service, nor conspiracy.