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+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+<title>Filenames for TeX fonts</title>
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+<p>
+Node:&nbsp;<a name="Font%20legalities">Font legalities</a>,
+Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="Index.html#Index">Index</a>,
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+
+<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>
+