Re: enclose font in website

Ben C wrote:
On 2009-02-25, Nik Coughlin <nrkn.com@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
[...]
You *cannot* legally redistribute fonts if doing so breaches the
license.

The typeface may not be copyrightable, but the file containing the
vector data for a font IS copyrightable. Note, I'm not talking
about the software used to create it, but the resultant font file.
This applies to scalable (vector) fonts but not to bitmapped fonts
for some reason.

If I wrote a program whose inputs were a vector font file (e.g. a
.ttf) and some text, and whose output was SVG intended to be used on
a web page that rendered as the text in the font, but without needing
users to have the actual font file, would that violate any copyright?

IMHO no. The TTF file format is AFAIK not protected by copyright[1] and is
actually published so you can reverse engineer it, or rather delve into it,
as you see fit.[2]

Your program is using the TTF file on your local machine and you have
royalty to use that TTF file howsoever you wish (AFAIK) on your local
machine. In fact there *is* a "program" you already have that does almost
what you describe. It is your video card driver (if it's a third party one).
It uses as input the TTF font file and some text and produces a bitmap that
eventually is displayed on your desktop or printer. This is how you are able
to use your favourite word processor to produce fancy output. Of course the
driver may call on operating system API's to actually delve into the TTF
file but so would your hyperthetical program.

This is also exactly how things like word art work, and there are third
party offerings that do the same thing. I used to have one, drew very pretty
three-D lettering etc. They delve into the TTF and do things that the
drivers and the operating system simply cannot do.

It would be the same vector graphics, but not the same actual data.

Yes. Same as if you used a PDF writer to produce a PDF file. The TTF file is
used during the creating process.

Whay you may *not* do is redistribute that copyrighted TTF file.

A further example, you can buy from the post office a list of postcodes (zip
codes if you wish). This list is updated regularly as part of your royalty,
or licence. You can use this list however you wish but you cannot give it to
somebody else.

Recall though, as Nik said, the U S of A is behind the times in copyright as
it is applied to fonts.

[1] Compare this to the GIF file format. Crikey, I can't even remember who
invented it but they copyrighted the file format. If you were to write a
program that produced output in GIF format then you had to obtain a licence
from the copyright holder. Everybody of course ignored this (illegaly) and
the copyright actually expired a few years ago.

[2] I wouldn't try reverse engineering a font to change a few glyphs and
then selling the resultant font as if it were your own.


.

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