Raster Font Copyright (and other protection) in the US and rest of the world
Raster Font Copyright (and other protection) in the US and rest of the world
Friday, August 24, 2012 - 15:05
There have been two pixmap font submissions lately that concern me.
complete-unicode-plane-0-bitmap-font-png submitted the bitmap version of a GPL font under cc0.
pixel-pirate-font appears to be ccbysa-licensed but is based on (Disney-owned?) dafont.com/pieces-of-eight.font.
There seems to be no copyright for bitmap fonts in the US but what about other forms of protection and other countries' laws? Some information outlined in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces.
It seems to me that we have to either
- reject art that has other levels of protection (design patent, trademark...) or country-specific limitations or
- include a warning about such issues.
(I'm also not sure that the non-copyrightable status of fonts was intended for fonts that are not designed for readability.)
I support your suggestion - we should keep OGA free from art that can't legally be used worldwide.
That is a great idea in theory, however nearly impossible in pratice, for example in some countries art with blood in it is illegal.
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Full Steam Ahead! o/ <-- little ascii fist in the air holding a debugging hammer.