In the U.S. (and many European nations?, but not Germany or France), typefaces cannot be copyrighted, but fonts can. The distinction is that a font is the digi

In the U.S. (and many European nations?, but not Germany or France), typefaces cannot be copyrighted, but fonts can. The distinction is that a font is the digital representation of a typeface. Although some fonts have received design patents, that is fairly rare. So, the actual font file is in fact subject to copyright in the U.S., and distributing it through the browser could be considered a violation.