[scj]

Problem #1: Famous Fonts. What's the deal with these? Can I use the Matrix font, Star Wars, Wendy's, Playstation, or any other famous font without violating copyright/trademarks? What if I used a famous font, but spelled a different word to make a logo? Is that legal?

Problem #2: Image manipulation. Say I took a character, like Sonic the Hedgehog, and instead of making him blue, I made him red. I changed the eyes to make him more anime like, added a few more spikes, and gave him new shoes. Have I done enough to avoid copyright infringement? I guess the question is, can you take a well known character, like Mickey, manipulate some parts about him, and use it as an original character, or in a design or something?


Thanks

scj

[Snowshiro]

IANAL, but this is an extract from this page: Font Licensing and Protection Details

There are three types of protection that can be afforded to typefaces and fonts in addition to basic license agreements: trademark, design patent and copyright. These are intended to keep non-licensees from copying the fonts in some way and passing them off as original material. They each have implications for the computer support person.

The Trademark system is the weakest form of protection, allowing only the font name itself to be protected. Hermann Zapf's popular typeface PalatinoTM is arguably the most copied typeface in the world. Many companies made their own identical versions of it (including the Book Antiqua distributed in the past by Microsoft), but had to change the name. This means that no one is allowed to use a currently existing typeface name for a new font, even if the fonts are completely unrelated.

The Design Patent system is the strongest, but most uncommon type of protection. The designation is relatively rare because of the cost and effort involved, but is powerful. It is the only US legal precedent that protects the actual design - the individual shapes of the letters in a font. The Lucida font family (designed by Bigelow and Holmes) were some of the first digital fonts to be given a patent. If a designer were to copy them, even by redrawing them from scratch using pencil and paper, he would be in serious legal trouble.

The Copyright system is the most commonly used type of protection, but has also been the most vague and difficult to enforce. There is no explicit protection for fonts or typeface designs in US copyright law. Hence, fonts have, until recently, fallen between the cracks in the justice system.
Fonts are software.

It's also worth mentioning that in a fairly well-publicized case, a Chinese company is currently suing Blizzard Entertainment (the makers of the wildly popular World of Warcraft online game) accusing them of copying and using 5 of their fonts. Since it's not yet gone to court, there's no knowing if the case has any merit, but the company in question clearly thinks their intellectual property is legally protected.

I think the clear advice would be "if in doubt, don't do it".

[pgo]

I would say, technically, "No, that's not legal." on both counts.

Now, there are certain allowances - satire, for example. But if you try to make a derivative work and sell it as your own or use it to market a product or service, you're treading on thin ice.

Best bet is always to come up with your own idea. Why risk it?

[NattyFido]

Originally Posted by pgo

But if you try to make a derivative work and sell it as your own or use it to market a product or service, you're treading on thin ice.

Does that mean that my avatar couldn't be used as a logo/trademark if it was using Arial for instance?
(It's not, I had to draw the characters using 3D primitives)

[Snowshiro]

Originally Posted by NattyFido

Does that mean that my avatar couldn't be used as a logo/trademark if it was using Arial for instance?

No. If it's licensed, you can use any font you want. With Arial, you probably received a license to use it when you bought whatever OS you use.

[pdlr]

Usually, if you buy a font or a product that comes with fonts then you have the right to use them. This can vary, but usually you will receive details about licensing and usage. You almost never have the right to resell a font or repackage/resell. The "ultimate font" downloads you see online get around this buy claiming to charge you for the service of the download and not a license for the fonts themselves. Since most of the fonts are open-licensed, the downloader won't have any problems. However, I'm willing to bet the people who offer these aren't really sure about at least some of their fonts.

With downloading free fonts online, it can be a wildcard. Sometimes you just don't know. Consider an original font created by a designer intended to be used and distributed for free but not resold. A licensing and usage document is often not created. Consider a font created by a designer that is so closely related to a copyrighted font that it infringes on said copyright yet a licensing and usage document is created and allows anyone to use the font. I'm not sure how this would be handled, but as you can see there is a lot of mix-up in this area.

[pdlr]

by the way, check out the way this artist mixes it up with a lot copyrighted material. i like to think of what he does as "adding copyrighted qualities to original material" as opposed to taking a copyrighted object and slightly modifying it. as mentioned before, this is an example of satire.

popaganda.com

[d*d]

the copyright would be infringed is a 'substantial' amount of the original is used - if your sonic creation was still recognizable as sonic - even with he extra spikes and different eyes then you would be liable

[imagn]

I believe they quantify it somehow by saying you need to change at least 40%