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0 pointsVanderson7y ago0 comments

"The idea that typefaces (rather than fonts, which are computer software) cannot be copyrighted in the United States is black letter law. 37 C.F.R. § 202.1(e). Under U.S. law, typefaces and their letter forms or glyphs are considered utilitarian objects whose public utility outweighs any private interest in protecting their creative elements."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...

There is an interesting history of font copying going back to the beginning of the USA. Where the US printers wanted to use European fonts (typefaces?), but didn't want to be hampered by their copyright laws. So there was no copyright protections of fonts in the US.

IANAL but Adobe lost some court case on this recently where they tried to accuse someone of "stealing/copying" a font. But since you can't copyright the alphabet, you can only copyright the font's actual data.

In theory you could trace any font you want in a font design program, and it is now legally yours.

Which makes sense if you are a business that uses fonts (ie a software company) as a primary part of your product instead of a permanent fee to a font provider.

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0 pointsVanderson7y ago0 comments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...

In theory you could trace any font you want in a font design program, and it is now legally yours.

Which makes sense if you are a business that uses fonts (ie a software company) as a primary part of your product instead of a permanent fee to a font provider.