[OpenFontLibrary] Public Domain Fonts due to lack of copyright notice

[Liam R E Quin]

On Fri, 2008-12-26 at 20:47 -0500, Fontfreedom at aol.com wrote: 
> >
> >This is an oversimplification -- elsewhere in that same document it's
> >noted that registration of copyright without a notice was also
> >sufficient under the 1976 act.  
> I pointed that out in my 1st post.

OK, we're talking past each other I think.  Perhaps I
should not have used the word "misunderstanding", sorry.

I drafted a really long and detailed reply explaining why
it's not quite that simple and clear-cut, but really I
think it all boils down to this --

The answer for the open font library is that we should
prefer fonts where the designer has given explicit permission, and
that we should require a clear statement of licensing status.

I see the open font library project as being part of a larger movement
to support creative work such as art, graphic design and publication
using Free (libre) software and in a Free software environment.
I'm fairly confident that this is not only my own view.

People releasing fonts in the public domain risk others taking
their work and republishing it for commercial sale without
giving the artist any credit.  For example, someone called
Peter Queen (say) could start a company called Sluggish (a
sort of typographic pun in that name) and release a CD or DVD
with lots of public domain fonts on it, and charge, say, $3000
for it.  The problem with this is not one of law, but one of
motivation for the people designing the typefaces.

Let's put our energy into getting font designers to support the
project, and not into trying to find a half-dozen fonts that were
badly released 10 or 20 years ago and might or might not be
protected by copyright.  The goal is to create a community of people
designing and releasing type, not to try and find legal loopholes to
annoy the very people we want to attract.

Regards,

Liam


-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
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