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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)

#61

Post by 52-6F-62 »

mattferderer wrote: post #51
52-6F-62 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully support your point—many times there are free or system fonts that are at least as of high quality. That said I only missed MATTEL on that one. Helv has a few giveaways and refinements but most people don't care—though the differences Arial and other modified Helveticas do have arguably render the type less neutral.

I can't remember if I was able to get them all right or if I missed one when I first did it. I had graphic designer friends do it & they scored roughly the same as you & me. The difference of course is we all know what to look for & were purposely looking for those differences.

Hahaha yeah exactly. Had I not learned some of the characteristics some time ago it would be a lot more difficult. But once you see it you can't unsee it!

Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)

#62

Post by roywiggins »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #50
roywiggins wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Accidentally exposing a folder of copyrighted font files over FTP would probably technically violate the license, even if it was by accident. You're serving the files outside of the licensed use (serving and rendering a webpage). Same as if you accidentally exposed to the internet your home server of legally-created DVD backups. You'd still be violating the license under which you bought the DVDs.

Show me an attorney willing to pursue accidental violators for damages, especially when the asset in question is intended to be publicly served in the course of its use. I would genuinely be interested in case law's stance on this. Also interested in what happens to the value of non-public domain fonts if you require the digital asset to be handled as a secret (and all of the hassle that goes along with that).

That's why I said "technically". Whether there are any damages or what they would be, I don't know.

Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)

#63

Post by bryanrasmussen »

sp332 wrote: post #20
stefan_ wrote: post #9

Wait 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.

The legal issue is with the repo owner putting it in the repo. The problem is that it's a violation of the copyright license , that's the only reason it's an issue. Downloading the font file from the website is included in the license, so it's fine.

If the repo is the source for the website then the license is de facto forbidding people from open sourcing their websites if they pay for a font for it.

However the license does not explicitly limit the tools you can use to build the website, and the website is allowed by the license to have the font. The argument could be made by licensing the font for a website they have implicitly licensed it to be on github because it is a widely used tool for managing the source code of websites and if they (the font owners) wanted to restrict its usage they should have specified.

Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)

#65

Post by ryukafalz »

mcrider wrote: post #39

I've been doing this for years -- Its a PIA dealing with each font foundry's DRM system and getting it to work on my local dev environment. When I go live, I deal with it but its also such a hassle to get clients to pay for a font, give me the required info to use the foundry's DRM, etc. I bet if a foundry used an honor system (give fonts away for free, charge a per-site license for commercial use) they'd still make…

Wait, this is a thing?

If I were ever asked to install some DRM to render a font I'd nuke that thing from my system in a heartbeat.

Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)

#66

Post by bryanrasmussen »

favorited wrote: post #48
drngdds wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are enough fonts. It wouldn't be a great loss for humanity if we didn't get as many new fonts because of decreased profit margins in the font design industry.

There are enough fonts. It wouldn't be a great loss for humanity if you weren't able to use one you didn't pay for.

There are enough fonts, I don't go trawling github to download new ones for my projects.

And now in the future if I fork a project for my personal use I will make sure to remove any fonts I find in it.

Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)

#67

Post by Brendinooo »

drngdds wrote: post #43
Andrex wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if you're a font designer or type foundry.

There are enough fonts. It wouldn't be a great loss for humanity if we didn't get as many new fonts because of decreased profit margins in the font design industry.

Then stick to the SIL fonts, if there are indeed enough of them.

Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)

#69

Post by traderjane »

wnevets wrote: post #8
Gracana wrote: post #5

What'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.

If another company performs backup on your data, is that redistribution? A lot of people use Github as backup.

Re: Github became the web's largest font piracy site (2017)

#70

Post by oh_sigh »

Brendinooo wrote: post #64
jzunit wrote: post #6

Been doing searches for "site:github.com .ttf" for years. This is a feature not a bug.

Yikes. You ever try making a font? Do you know how many hours it takes and what kind of profit margins you're eating into?

It entirely depends on how OP was using the fonts.
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