The Copyrightability of Fonts Revisited
4 months ago
- #legal
- #type-design
- #copyright
- The author declined to endorse a letter to the U.S. Copyright Office regarding digital font copyright registrations due to concerns about the premise and personal relevance.
- Digital fonts are likely not protected by U.S. copyright, based on historical rulings like Eltra Corp. v. Ringer and USCO regulations.
- Adobe v. Southern Software (1998) provided limited copyright protection for font software programs, but its applicability is narrower than often believed.
- The 2021 Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices reaffirmed that typefaces are not copyrightable.
- Laatz v. Zazzle (2024) challenged the validity of font copyright registrations, suggesting that many existing registrations may not hold up in court.
- Converting fonts to software-like formats (e.g., XML) for registration is a flawed workaround, as it may violate human-authorship requirements and still exclude the font itself from protection.
- Copyright registration does not guarantee validity; defendants can challenge it in court, as seen in Laatz v. Zazzle.
- The author argues that font piracy is inevitable and that their business relies on an honor system rather than copyright enforcement.