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importance of this article is present information on the copyright and patent laws of digital fonts and how they currently are being applied, successfully and unsuccessfully. Also I put the font vs. typeface as a section because I don't think this is properly described on wikipedia currently. My article may or not be where this information belongs but I wanted to get it out there.
{{NewDYKnom| article= Patent and copyright protection of fonts | hook=... that ? | status=new | author= Legin-gross-drawkcab }}
I'm also participating in WikiProject US Public Policy and am researching the same topic. Here are some scholarly articles on the subject: [1] [2] [3]. ToastIsTasty ( talk) 01:02, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
{{
cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter |month=
ignored (
help)I really like all the different sections that are now included in this article. I think one way to continue progressing the article is to first add as much relevant content as possible in order to beef up the comprehensiveness. The issues surrounding copyright protection for fonts and more thorough explanations of the key ideas should be expanded, and then other editors can help out with the more technical aspects such as neutrality, readability, and formatting. One minor suggestion is to consolidate the UNESCO references (#2-15) just like the other ones already are. The section that interests me the most and which I think will catch the eyes of a lot of readers is the Policy Issues section. The example involving the Jay Leno Show and Saturday Night Live are great, and if you could include several other major issues in this section it would be a valuable addition to the article. Gsrogers ( talk) 04:10, 22 October 2010 (UTC)
The article is coming along really nicely. The licensing section is a little redundant and I might consider re-writing it so it is a little more concise. I am also curious to know how the licensing of fonts plays into the types of protection - are all fonts licensed? if it is, is that license a form of protection? Does the licensing section perhaps belong in the protection section? Either way, some clarification there could be helpful. In the copyright section, maybe just connect the dots for the readers as to exactly why fonts do not fall under the protection of the copyright law (I am assuming because they are not considered 3 or 2d?). Also, in the copyright section maybe give a brief overview of the case/precedent that was set in addition to linking. Obviously not a lot, maybe just even a sentence. Other than that things look really good. Maybe look to expand the sources a little - are there any legal documents about the cases you could site? Have font companies issued statements on the illegal use of their work? It could be interesting to see if there is a defense for any of the people accused of stealing them (and including that could help with NPOV). Clairestum ( talk) 17:38, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
Someone deleted this material from the article. Was that OK, or a mistake? Please put it back in if it was useful. -- Ssilvers ( talk) 21:58, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
This article appears to be wishful thinking. It baldly states: "Fonts and typefaces are the intellectual property of type designers who create them." When this is clearly not true. Just see the far more accurate Copyright on typefaces. Or the section on licensing, just because font makes want such a standard doesn't mean they have any legal basis in fact. "Stealing these fonts is known as digital font theft." Seriously? You can't steal a font, it's physically impossible. And it doesn't help that the font are not copyrightable in the first place. Ariel. ( talk) 21:33, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
Reading the last comment above, it seems ludicrous to have a page "copyright in typefaces" and another page "Patent and copyright protection of fonts" - Surely it would be better if these articles were merged? In addition, given that this article talks about patents, design patents and copyright. It might be more accurate to name the page "intellectual property protection of typefaces / of fonts" rather than the more cumbersome title currently used. Ajbpearce ( talk) 14:00, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
Very good article. Here I just suggest, (if possible) when added relevant topic of "how procedure to get/issued a patent (or copyright or Intellectual Property) of a typeface"? (kotakata 19:33, 10 August 2013 (UTC))
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A pair of IP editors (100.8.171.163 & 104.162.24.137 ; they may be the same individual, I don't know) has revised the section on the US law saying that the law and/or the Copyright Office position has changed. There are a number of issues here: the use of a unreliability source (a blog that itself relies on forum posts); the clear lack of changes in Copyright office policies; and the misunderstanding of the distinction in the Copyright Office treatment of a font (the file, often a program that shapes and produces as output the typeface) and the typeface (the design of the letterforms themselves.
The citation used is to the blog at [4]. Blogs aren't reliable sourced in any event, but this one in particular seems a bit odd. The blog itself is relying on comments and documents posted on a forum for typeface designers, since deleted but archived at [5]; which in turn is relying an a copy of a letter from an attorney to Congress that may or may not have actually been sent, but in any event does not represent Copyright Office policy, but is at most client advocacy, not a reliable source,
In the edit summary, one editor points to changes in sections 723 and 906.4 of the recent rev to the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices. But there are no significant changes to either section. In 723 ( redline) the only change is a conforming change to update for a renumbered subsection (a reference to section 1509.1(C) becomes 1509.1(F). 906.4 ( redline) shows no substantive change, either.
The advocacy letters discuss a rejection of a pure typeface set out as data in a file, in this case an XML file. That's not a change in policy: protection of the typeface itself has not been protected under US law, and the 1992 registrability change did not affect that. What are protected are fonts that are computer programs; for example, TrueType or PostScript fonts. The edits misunderstand this as "the software used to create a font is protectable by copyright. The font itself is not"; the correct understanding is that the font used to produce the typeface is protectable by copyright if it qualifies as a computer program. The typeface itself is not. Fonts such as TrueType and Postscript fonts are computer programs that produce typeface and subject to copyright; they are not software used to produce fonts. (Software used to produce fonts are, of course, also subject to copyright, but that has nothing to do with the issue of protection for fonts or typeface.)
The bottom line is that nothing has changed: fonts that produce typeface may be registered, in 2021 as in 1992. Typeface itself that is nothing but the data of the shape of the typeface (most commonly a bitmap back in 1992 and earlier; the example the IP edits point to being data in an XML file) is not.
Feel free to discuss this; in the meantime I will revert to the text as it existed prior to the IP edit sequence. TJRC ( talk) 23:40, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
I have reverted the text. However, while it appears that section 723 has indeed not changed since 29 September 2017, it already contained the language allegedly used to deny copyright registration to a TrueType font that Frank Martinez's client used high-level tools to design. T3h 1337 b0y 11:30, 11 June 2021 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Intellectual property protection of typefaces article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This article was the subject of an educational assignment supported by WikiProject United States Public Policy and the Wikipedia Ambassador Program. |
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The following references may be useful when improving this article in the future:
|
importance of this article is present information on the copyright and patent laws of digital fonts and how they currently are being applied, successfully and unsuccessfully. Also I put the font vs. typeface as a section because I don't think this is properly described on wikipedia currently. My article may or not be where this information belongs but I wanted to get it out there.
{{NewDYKnom| article= Patent and copyright protection of fonts | hook=... that ? | status=new | author= Legin-gross-drawkcab }}
I'm also participating in WikiProject US Public Policy and am researching the same topic. Here are some scholarly articles on the subject: [1] [2] [3]. ToastIsTasty ( talk) 01:02, 23 October 2010 (UTC)
{{
cite journal}}
: Unknown parameter |month=
ignored (
help)I really like all the different sections that are now included in this article. I think one way to continue progressing the article is to first add as much relevant content as possible in order to beef up the comprehensiveness. The issues surrounding copyright protection for fonts and more thorough explanations of the key ideas should be expanded, and then other editors can help out with the more technical aspects such as neutrality, readability, and formatting. One minor suggestion is to consolidate the UNESCO references (#2-15) just like the other ones already are. The section that interests me the most and which I think will catch the eyes of a lot of readers is the Policy Issues section. The example involving the Jay Leno Show and Saturday Night Live are great, and if you could include several other major issues in this section it would be a valuable addition to the article. Gsrogers ( talk) 04:10, 22 October 2010 (UTC)
The article is coming along really nicely. The licensing section is a little redundant and I might consider re-writing it so it is a little more concise. I am also curious to know how the licensing of fonts plays into the types of protection - are all fonts licensed? if it is, is that license a form of protection? Does the licensing section perhaps belong in the protection section? Either way, some clarification there could be helpful. In the copyright section, maybe just connect the dots for the readers as to exactly why fonts do not fall under the protection of the copyright law (I am assuming because they are not considered 3 or 2d?). Also, in the copyright section maybe give a brief overview of the case/precedent that was set in addition to linking. Obviously not a lot, maybe just even a sentence. Other than that things look really good. Maybe look to expand the sources a little - are there any legal documents about the cases you could site? Have font companies issued statements on the illegal use of their work? It could be interesting to see if there is a defense for any of the people accused of stealing them (and including that could help with NPOV). Clairestum ( talk) 17:38, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
Someone deleted this material from the article. Was that OK, or a mistake? Please put it back in if it was useful. -- Ssilvers ( talk) 21:58, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
This article appears to be wishful thinking. It baldly states: "Fonts and typefaces are the intellectual property of type designers who create them." When this is clearly not true. Just see the far more accurate Copyright on typefaces. Or the section on licensing, just because font makes want such a standard doesn't mean they have any legal basis in fact. "Stealing these fonts is known as digital font theft." Seriously? You can't steal a font, it's physically impossible. And it doesn't help that the font are not copyrightable in the first place. Ariel. ( talk) 21:33, 17 November 2010 (UTC)
Reading the last comment above, it seems ludicrous to have a page "copyright in typefaces" and another page "Patent and copyright protection of fonts" - Surely it would be better if these articles were merged? In addition, given that this article talks about patents, design patents and copyright. It might be more accurate to name the page "intellectual property protection of typefaces / of fonts" rather than the more cumbersome title currently used. Ajbpearce ( talk) 14:00, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
Very good article. Here I just suggest, (if possible) when added relevant topic of "how procedure to get/issued a patent (or copyright or Intellectual Property) of a typeface"? (kotakata 19:33, 10 August 2013 (UTC))
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A pair of IP editors (100.8.171.163 & 104.162.24.137 ; they may be the same individual, I don't know) has revised the section on the US law saying that the law and/or the Copyright Office position has changed. There are a number of issues here: the use of a unreliability source (a blog that itself relies on forum posts); the clear lack of changes in Copyright office policies; and the misunderstanding of the distinction in the Copyright Office treatment of a font (the file, often a program that shapes and produces as output the typeface) and the typeface (the design of the letterforms themselves.
The citation used is to the blog at [4]. Blogs aren't reliable sourced in any event, but this one in particular seems a bit odd. The blog itself is relying on comments and documents posted on a forum for typeface designers, since deleted but archived at [5]; which in turn is relying an a copy of a letter from an attorney to Congress that may or may not have actually been sent, but in any event does not represent Copyright Office policy, but is at most client advocacy, not a reliable source,
In the edit summary, one editor points to changes in sections 723 and 906.4 of the recent rev to the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices. But there are no significant changes to either section. In 723 ( redline) the only change is a conforming change to update for a renumbered subsection (a reference to section 1509.1(C) becomes 1509.1(F). 906.4 ( redline) shows no substantive change, either.
The advocacy letters discuss a rejection of a pure typeface set out as data in a file, in this case an XML file. That's not a change in policy: protection of the typeface itself has not been protected under US law, and the 1992 registrability change did not affect that. What are protected are fonts that are computer programs; for example, TrueType or PostScript fonts. The edits misunderstand this as "the software used to create a font is protectable by copyright. The font itself is not"; the correct understanding is that the font used to produce the typeface is protectable by copyright if it qualifies as a computer program. The typeface itself is not. Fonts such as TrueType and Postscript fonts are computer programs that produce typeface and subject to copyright; they are not software used to produce fonts. (Software used to produce fonts are, of course, also subject to copyright, but that has nothing to do with the issue of protection for fonts or typeface.)
The bottom line is that nothing has changed: fonts that produce typeface may be registered, in 2021 as in 1992. Typeface itself that is nothing but the data of the shape of the typeface (most commonly a bitmap back in 1992 and earlier; the example the IP edits point to being data in an XML file) is not.
Feel free to discuss this; in the meantime I will revert to the text as it existed prior to the IP edit sequence. TJRC ( talk) 23:40, 2 April 2021 (UTC)
I have reverted the text. However, while it appears that section 723 has indeed not changed since 29 September 2017, it already contained the language allegedly used to deny copyright registration to a TrueType font that Frank Martinez's client used high-level tools to design. T3h 1337 b0y 11:30, 11 June 2021 (UTC)