Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:11728 comp.sys.mac:10086 misc.legal:3077
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!marque!gryphon!richard
From: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.mac,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Macintosh Fonts
Message-ID: <2607@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Date: 16 Dec 87 08:08:27 GMT
References: <546@oscvax.UUCP> <1308@uhccux.UUCP>
Reply-To: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 44
Summary: Nothing to do with Pixar

In article <1308@uhccux.UUCP> cm450s02@uhccux.UUCP (Jeff T. Segawa) writes:
>In article <546@oscvax.UUCP> rico@oscvax.UUCP (Rico Mariani) writes:
>>I've recently converted a whole bunch of Macintosh fonts to the Amiga
>>format and I'd like to put them on a public domain font disk.  However,
>>I can see where there might be a few legal problems with doing this... 
>>So my question is this, which Mac fonts (if any) could I release without
>>being sued to bits? 
>>
>I think most of the fonts released by Apple are either copyrighted by
>Apple itself, or licensed to them by ITC, Adobe or others. This is
>especially true of some laser fonts, like ITC Garamond and Zapf.
>I'm no attorney, but I suspect that releasing those into the public 
>domain could get you into trouble.

I believe Apple licensed them, but in itself doesn't own any font
copyrights.

Doesn't make much difference, because...

(are you sitting down)

... you cannot copyright a font design in the U.S. (not sure about Canada)

You can trademark a name (like Helvetica (tm)), and you can copyright
the binary that is the font, but the design itself cannot be copyrighted.

Sooo, you can scale up a font you like, blatently copy it, and do with
it as you please. Sell it, etc.

No shit.

Now, how does one prove that a software publisher *converted* a font, or
copied the design ?

Clear as mud, eh, hoser ?

(Ref. Chuck Bigelow's article on Font Copyrights published recently
in comp.lang.postscript)


-- 
       "Well they say, that Santa Fe, is more, than 90 miles away"

{ihnp4!crash, hplabs!hp-sdd!crash}!gryphon!richard || richard@gryphon.CTS.COM