Re: questions for a page layout program

[Robert Wittams <robert wittams ic ac uk>]

> Lauris' ideas sound very promising, although I am concerned about
> copyright protection for fonts.  But maybe that's somewhere I
> can help too.
 
I'd say it is always good to collaborate on these things and I'm sure
that you will make a valuable contribution to the gnome-font system with
your experience. 

As to the copyright protection system, I really don't think this is
something gnome can be expected to "solve". A font is stored as a stream
of bytes, and as such it is easy to duplicate. I know of no non-physical
copyright protection system that actually works if people are determined
to infringe on copyright. Just look at DeCSS, SDMI, etc. Do we really
want to go there? 

I would say that this is a matter best left to the courts. If a font
designer/publisher has reason to believe that someone is infringing
their copywrite, they can sue. 

Of course we can make the system obey the copy protection flags in the
font file. This will lead to determined copywrite infringers editing the
font in a font editor, or just hacking it out of the font system and
recompiling, so I don't know if it is worth while. 

Note, I am not advocating infringement, I am just saying that we won't
stop it. I think people who want free fonts should fund the design of
the fonts, or design them themselves if they have the talent - and
release them under a permissive licence. 

Rob