Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
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Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
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Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#2Is this "piracy" in the sense of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean?"
Like, Github is taking an niche subject matter, packaging it up for a more general audience, and then distributing it worldwide?
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#3Is this "piracy" in the sense of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean?" Like, Github is taking an niche subject matter, packaging it up for a more general audience, and then distributing it worldwide?
No? This is taking copyrighted material owned by somebody else and distributing it to people that haven't paid for it.
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#4Interestingly, typefaces are not copyrightable in the US, though fonts, being computer code, can be. Not sure how this influences the situation, though.
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#5What's the difference between putting webfonts on your public website vs putting them on your public github? This seems like a distinction that only lawyers would care about, but I'm not a web developer (and I don't know much about webfonts) so maybe there's something I'm missing.
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#6Been doing searches for "site:github.com .ttf" for years.
This is a feature not a bug.
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#7Interestingly, typefaces are not copyrightable in the US, though fonts, being computer code, can be. Not sure how this influences the situation, though.
Wouldn’t it then be legal to make your own font (so you own the copyright on the computer code) representing a commercial typeface?
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#8What's the difference between putting webfonts on your public website vs putting them on your public github? This seems like a distinction that only lawyers would care about, but I'm not a web developer (and I don't know much about webfonts) so maybe there's something I'm missing.
IANAL but I believe you may have a license (paid money) to use the font on your site but you may not have a licence redistribute the font. You paid for the right to air the latest UFC fight at your bar but that doesn't grant you the ability to sale DVDs of it.
However a user of yours could just download the font from your web server or record the fight on their phone.
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#9Wait until they find out that when people visit the finished website in their browser, it will download the font! Oh the piracy!
Just like in the real world, someone handing you the keys to their car doesn't mean you own it.
Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)
#10What's the difference between putting webfonts on your public website vs putting them on your public github? This seems like a distinction that only lawyers would care about, but I'm not a web developer (and I don't know much about webfonts) so maybe there's something I'm missing.
IANAL but I believe you may have a license (paid money) to use the font on your site but you may not have a licence redistribute the font. You paid for the right to air the latest UFC fight at your bar but that doesn't grant you the ability to sale DVDs of it. However a user of yours could just download the font from your web server or record the fight on their phone.
But it's not like a webpage renders an image for you and then you rend an image: you send the user a font so that they can render the page themselves with that font. It's being distributed either way.