A Question Of Legality

[ElKootcho]

Just a quick question regarding the legalities of some of the requests being made in a few of the contests. Some of the contest posters are requesting fonts when a final design is chosen. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it illegal to include the font? All of us designers know, or should know, that we don't own the fonts that we are using but only have a usage license. Technically, the person buying the logo or website template or whatever would need to purchase the font seperately from the developer. It simply is not the designers right to give the font away. What is DesignOutpost.com's position on this? Or am I completely mistaken?

[Palmer]

I guess it depends on if it's a freely available font or if it's one you bought or comes with the software. I'm not a lawyer but I'll ask some experts and report back. I think you are best off just using standard freely available fonts in those contests that ask for them.

You make a very good point. Same goes for any images used in templates etc. They must be copyright free or ones you have the rights to. Maybe some of the Design Team members might know the legality problems of requesting a font used in a design.

[Palmer]

Well I've received two answers to your question...

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He's correct. Furthermore, some of the "freeware" fonts are only free for non-commercial use.

The way I'd get around the problem is include the designer's services in making some extra images with that font(to reasonable degree) in lieu of the actual font.
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And another...

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Just tell them the name of the font and some similar ones. A few people have done that for me and I found it more then sufficient.
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I was hoping for other replies but that's what i have for now. I'll kepp you posted.

Palmer

[Mike]

They really shouldn't even need the font. If they need an alteration, I'm sure the designer wouldn't mind doing it for free or for cheap, since all it would involve is opening the .psd and changing the text.

[ElKootcho]

Originally posted by naramation@Feb 14 2003, 05:28 PM
They really shouldn't even need the font.  If they need an alteration, I'm sure the designer wouldn't mind doing it for free or for cheap, since all it would involve is opening the .psd and changing the text.
I agree with this completely. However, maybe something should be posted when contests begin. For example, in the Enthropia.com logo contest, AhmedF says "I will also require all files and associated fonts so I can modify it a bit later if needed."

[beetle]

Agreed. Fonts should not be supplied to the contest holder unless paid for separately. The prize money is for the rendition made using that font.

There's a reason Adobe's Font Folio costs $8,000.

If the font is freeware, then of course, there is no problem with distributing it to whomever.

[AhmedF]

Whoops .. hope Im not causing any troubles ... just trying to cover myself so that if I need it resized etc, I dont have to go and harass the designer.

I hate opening up a PSD, and then having photoshop swap the original font file with something nutty and insane! <_<

[Palmer]

No you're not in trouble, just a discussion about exactly what we're allowed to do as far as us getting in trouble or not.

[beetle]

FWIW, I don't know about other programs, but Photoshop can convert Type layers into Shape layers. Just select the Type layer (copy it first) and use the menu command Layer » Type » Convert To Shape

In case you don't know, Shape layers in Photoshop are special vector-only layers, where the fill is a dynamic element and NOT a Paint layer, so they ARE different from a regular Paint layer with an applied vector mask.

Coincidentally, you can also just convert your type to paths using Layer » Type » Create Work Path

It is handy to do this because you can maintain the vector scalability of your type without having to provide the font. The only caveat is that the other user cannot re-type any text, but in the case of logo design the need for that will be very minimal.