🚀 go-pugleaf

William Lee Nussbaum writes

> Irving Wolfe writes:

>> Various people have expressed skepticism about the public status
>> of these fonts because of their high quality.  I don't know the
>> actualp status and have not downloaded the fonts, but that reason
>> -- quality -- is a silly one to arouse such concern.

> It's moreso the fact that there is no creator attribution in the
> font file -- just a BBS name and number -- and that the AFM files
> have Adobe copyright messages in them.

Quality *can* be an indicator, because if someone took the font
program into an editing program and simply tweaked some of the
characters, then the resulting font program is still a "derivative
work" and is still covered by the copyright.

Additionally, ANY FONT THAT CONTAINING A COPYRIGHT NOTICE IS A
COPYRIGHTED FONT, and MAY NOT BE COPIED, unless specific permission
is given in some comment in the font.  It DOESN'T MATTER if it was
Adobe or freelance font artist who created them.


Now, as far as the fonts on sonata are concerned - they're OK.
One look and I could tell exactly how they were created (can you
say "pathforall", I knew you could).  And while that's *slimy*,
it's not illegal, and major parts of what make an Adobe Type 1 font
program look good are lost when that is done.  And, unfortunately,
due to the shortsightedness of our government, the digital data
representing the raw outline of an artistic creation is not
copyrightable.  (That is, because of how "pathforall" works, it's
indemnifying).

Personally, I can't see how anybody thought these things were high
quality - they have *no hinting*!  And really, when you look at
them closely, they look like garbage on the screen.  They'll print
out ok at 400dpi, but not nearly as good as a fully hinted font
will.

--
Scott Byer                             NeXTMail: byer@mv.us.adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated               These are *my* opinions, and  
1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900        do not necessarily reflect
Mountain View, CA 94039-7900             the opinions of my employer.
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