🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm confused about the legal status of the Hershey fonts.  This is from
the README file in comp.sources.unix/volume4/hershey on uunet:

>USE RESTRICTION:
>  This distribution of the Hershey Fonts may be used by anyone for
>  any purpose, commercial or otherwise, providing that:
>    1. The following acknowledgements must be distributed with
>      the font data:
             (blah blah blah)

However, later it says:

>The Hershey Fonts:
>  - are in the public domain, with a few caveats:
>    - They are available from NTIS (National Technical Info.
>      Service) in a computer-readable from which is *not*
>      in the public domain. This format is described in
...
>    - This distribution is not in the NTIS format, and thus is
>      only subject to the simple restriction described
>      at the top of this file.


How can _any_ restrictions be applied to something in the public
domain?  It's my (possibly imperfect) understanding that if the creator
of something wants to retain the right to tell you what you can/cannot
do with it, that by definition means that he wants to retain the
copyRIGHT.  If, on the other hand, he puts the work into the public
domain, he can maintain _no_ rights to it, for it no longer belongs to
him but rather to the PUBLIC.  (Courtesy does not enter into the legal
questions presented here.)

Questions:

1)  Given the conflicting statements in the above quote, are the subject
    fonts in the public domain, or are they not?

2)  I've _not_ followed any discussion that may have been going on
    recently about the copyrightability of fonts.  Any (short)
    conclusions?

Independent of #2, I'd still like to know whether the self-conflicting
statement in the quote would release something to the public domain as
the author attempts to do, or whether the claim to the "simple
restriction" overrides that, maintaining the authors' copyright.


ALSO:  there appears to be some Hershey fonts in PostScript format in
the OpenWindows 3 lib/fonts directory.  A quick scan in that directory
does not reveal any acknowlegements.  Are these "real" Hershey fonts?
Do the requested acknowlegements exist elsewhere in Suns distribution
or documentation?

Am I looking at too old a distribution of the Hershey fonts?  This
whole dilemma _could_ have been resolved in a later release.


Ken Hardy
ken@bridge.com  (racerx!ken)