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-<html lang="en">
-<head>
-<title>Filenames for TeX fonts</title>
-<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html">
-<meta name="description" content="Filenames for TeX fonts">
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-<div class="node">
-<p>
-Node:&nbsp;<a name="Font%20legalities">Font legalities</a>,
-Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Index.html#Index">Index</a>,
-Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="Encodings.html#Encodings">Encodings</a>,
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-<hr><br>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="appendix">Font legalities</h2>
-
-<p>This section owes a great deal to Charles Bigelow (co-designer with Kris
-Holmes of the Lucida typeface family, among others), who has generously
-answered our many queries about fonts and the law around the world with
-remarkable patience and understanding. (But he is naturally not
-responsible for any errors here, much less our opinions.)
-
- <p>Fonts have always been treated rather strangely under the law, as befits
-their rather strange nature: letterforms are indivisibly both
-<em>useful</em> and <em>artistic</em>. In most countries--in all countries
-until recently--utility has taken precedence; i.e., it has been legal
-to copy fonts without permission or fee.
-
- <p>In any case, to the best of my knowledge, the situation in those
-countries which have adopted any sort of typeface protection is as
-follows:
-
- <dl>
-
- <br><dt>United States
- <dd>Typeface designs can be patented, but not copyrighted. Only a few
-designs have been patented. (Lucida and Stone are the only ones I know
-of. I don't know what the grounds were for patenting Stone, but Lucida
-had some novel features in its design which make it reasonable to
-patent, given the acceptance of the patent system in the first place.)
-
- <p>Particular programs which instantiate a font can be copyrighted just as
-any other computer program can. This is arguably wrong, since font
-programs are nothing but a description of the shapes, possibly with some
-simple hints, and there's only one basic way to describe the shapes in
-any given language. Thus, the creativity lies in making the shape
-right, not in making the computer program right, so it would seem that
-to be consistent, the copyright laws should protect the design, not the
-program--the opposite of the current situation.
-
- <br><dt>Germany
- <dd>Typeface designs have been copyrightable as original works of art since
-1981. As a result, many (perhaps most) designs have been copyrighted
-there. The law is not retroactive, but German courts have upheld the
-intellectual property rights of designers of earlier fonts as well: In
-one case the heirs of Paul Bauer (designer of Futura) won a suit against
-the Bauer foundry for arbitrarily discontinuing a portion of their
-royalties.
-
- <br><dt>England
- <dd>A copyright law passed in 1989 covers typeface designs first published
-in England (or published in Britain within 30 days of its publication
-elsewhere), and it <em>is</em> retroactive. It's unclear how far back the
-law extends, but Times Roman, designed in the late 1920's and 1930's by
-Stanley Morison and cut by Victor Lardent for Monotype is probably
-covered. This does not mean GNU (for example) cannot have a Times
-Roman; it just means we cannot start with an English version, as the law
-does not forbid importing foreign versions of English typefaces.
-
- <br><dt>France
- <dd>The Romain du Roi typeface designed by Philippe Grandjean in 1702 for
-the French royal family is protected, and perhaps other such "royal"
-designs. There is no protection for designs in general.
-
- </dl>
-
- <p>In 1973 the international Vienna treaty on typeface design protection
-was proposed. France ratified it in 1974 or 1975, and Germany in 1981.
-The English law might constitute ratification, but this has not been
-settled. In any case, since at least four countries have to ratify it
-before it takes effect (and even then it takes effect only in those
-countries which ratify it), it is still of no consequence for now.
-
- </body></html>
-