On Mon, 2008-11-10 at 21:13 -0500, fontfree...@aol.com wrote:
It's my understanding that anything published in the U.S. before March
1, 1989 without a valid copyright notice is in the public domain.
(unless the work was registered with the copyright office, fees paid
within a short time period.)
Your "understanding" is likely incorrect. If something does not have
a copyright notice or a US registered copyright that does not
automatically place it in the "public domain".
Even if it were legally permissible in the US to distribute pre-1989
fonts without a copyright notice or registered copyright - do you
believe it would be ethical do this without the designer / font creators
agreement? Because something may be allowed under the law of a
particular jurisdiction that does not make it morally and ethically OK.
People who are most vocal about being able to distribute fonts freely
most always seem to be talking about the work of others. Why is it I
don't hear this sort of suggestion from people who have designed serious
original fonts on their own from scratch?
- Chris
