Bitmapped fonts may not be copyrightable in the U.S., but Postscript/vector fonts certainly are: http://news.cnet.com/news/0,10000,0-1005-200-326302,00.html
In a case that pitted Adobe Systems against a small software company in Florida, U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte of San Jose, California, ruled that computer fonts are no different from other kinds of software, and enjoy full copyright protection.
See the font FAQ: http://nwalsh.com/comp.fonts/FAQ/cf_13.htm
scalable fonts are, in the opinion of the Copyright Office, computer programs, and as such are copyrightable
-Declan At 01:44 PM 12/18/2001 -0500, Duncan Frissell wrote:
I thought everyone knew. Fonts aren't copyrightable. Font *names* are. The reverse of the norm. With a story or novel the body of text is copyrightable, the title isn't.
DCF
On Tue, 18 Dec 2001, Declan McCullagh wrote:
Why wouldn't an original typeface be covered under U.S. copyright laws?
-Declan
At 10:12 AM 12/18/2001 -0800, David Honig wrote:
IIRC fonts are not copyrightable in the US, but are elsewhere, yes?
Assuming that's correct, then an algorithmic font (eg Postscript) could be turned into an albeit large static set of pixels which wouldn't be copyrightable in the US.