Raster Font Copyright (and other protection) in the US and rest of the world
Friday, August 24, 2012 - 12:05
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.