Fonts and the legal standpoint

[G_Town]

I seem to recall a mass panic some years back about software vendors in silent black helicopters searching for printers using illegal software.

[Joe]

....I've never heard of the font police showing up to enforce it though.

A couple of years ago the BSA decided to 'make a point' in Belgium. They showed up at a couple of printers front door at 8 in the morning, along with a legal team. There would be an audit in which invariably a number of fonts (and applications) where found that no one could prove ownership of. On the spot the team would make an offer to pay XXX euro to legalize the situation. If the owner refused, the workstations would be sealed. I've heard of one printer in Brussels who resisted for a day and a half. Once his presses started shutting down one by one, the fee was paid. Sales of font libraries soared in the months after!

And now I've heard about it! Scary...

[hotmetal]

(7) With regards to any and all fonts licensed from Adobe, we certainly do allow printers to use the versions of such fonts supplied by the customer with the restriction that the printer must have their own licensed copy of that font. The easiest means of accomplishing such licensing from Adobe is with Adobe's Font Folio product. Compared to the cost of licensing individual fonts from Adobe and certainly compared to the various hardware and supply costs faced by printers, the cost of Font Folio is fairly reasonable.

Refreshing to hear this from another source on this forum. I have been ignored, insulted, shouted down, and threatened with firing (or worse), in response to trying to explain software licensing to co-workers and managers. The smartest thing I ever did for myself in this regard was buying the Bitstream library on an unlocked CD back in the early 1990s. That, and other type I've bought for my home design uses (Chank Diesel, whoohooo!) has served me well over the years. But I have yet to convince a single printing company to quit being stupid and buy the damn fonts. (Which is why I don't tell you where I work; I get to retire in 3 years and 10 months from this place, after which they're on their own.)

[David]

I seem to recall a mass panic some years back about software vendors in silent black helicopters searching for printers using illegal software.

don't look now, but...

[jezza]

OK Dave, Texas is London? Am I right?

[David]

close enough for government work...





haha!

[G_Town]

I seem to recall a mass panic some years back about software vendors in silent black helicopters searching for printers using illegal software.

don't look now, but...

TAKE THAT!