some logo copyright issue?

[sonictheory]

good day... i have this problem which stuck in my mind remain unanswered, not sure if i posted in a right section...

if I were downloaded or purchased font from internet.

and I use it for my logo's font is it legal? do i need to seek for copyright? or seek for the font author for copyright ? it may use for personal website now, but i was thinking might create a goodies in future for small $$ for my maintainance.

and if I design a logo for someone, the font I use, should i copyright for him, or himself copyright for himself?

[mixedupmacandpc]

sonic, I am not a lawyer, just someone who uses a lot of fonts and does a lot of logo work. Here is what I know: Each font distributor may have different licensing terms , you have to check for each font you use. Some are creative commons license (http://creativecommons.org/learnmore/) and some are standard "u bought it - go for it" and some are "contact the designer of the font for permission to use commercially." If u purchase online from say Linotype they have the usual 10 page fine print: http://www.linotype.com/2061-20496/licenseagreementforfontsoftware.html that boils down to u can use it but not modify it or distribute it for sale as software, and you can't give it to your printer so they can print your document (did I read that right?).

Fonts are strange beasts that probably confuse the lawyers so they in turn want to confuse us, making the world turn as it legally should. But my interpretation (and hell, I live in a country that has not signed anything from the WTO or the UN in regards to intellectual property) is that, in general, you can use any software package like photoshop to twist the crap out of a font you buy and use that as a logo, and copyright that twisted crap as your own work. Everyone, including large mutlinationals, do just that. You should be careful when getting your twisted crap printed or you are distributing it in electronic form, as passing on the actual font file may be against the law. But the twisted pixels are probably all yours.

Hope that helps (ha!)
CCFCCP

[sonictheory]

so u mean I modify a bit of the font will do?.. is it necessary to mod each every single alphabet or just 1-2 alphabet in my logo's font?

[rAyVoLvEz]

It depends on the licence agreement, some are totally free, some are free for personal use.

A purchased font would theoretically mean you have purchased the royalty rights to use it, whether commercially or personal, wherein a free downloaded font would have the different levels of agreement (free, free to use for personal).

I would suggest to abide by the rules, if u want to use the font (which is downloaded and not free to use for commercial), contact the font author.

Manipulating pixels of it to change it, is just like a fish trying to swim out of the net through the holes. Not a rip, but definitely unethical.

If the font author ask u for some "donation" for commercial use, just pay him/her and make him/her issue a rights agreement to u.

[mixedupmacandpc]

Originally posted by sonictheory
so u mean I modify a bit of the font will do?.. is it necessary to mod each every single alphabet or just 1-2 alphabet in my logo's font?

oh, you mean use a font editor to modify the font, and then use that modified font in your application! like ray said, u have to check the fine print. with large font houses like linotype that's forbidden. But if u did it and never told anyone and never distributed the modified font or renamed it, how would anyone know? And who would care? Any effect that you induce in the typeface could painstakingly be reproduced in photoshop anyway - in the case of designing a logo. For a 100 page word document, that's a different story.

It's a lot like apple saying you can't hack ur iphone firmware. Everyone is doing it, but it may void their warranty or create support headaches. No one is calling the folks that did it criminals and no one is filing legal briefs. Editing your purchased fonts to suit your needs seems like a reasonable thing to do. There was a challenge here in this forum where that was done. No one sued.

Hoping my Alfred E. Newman What Me Worry Attitude does not land you in jail,
CCFCCP

[dcloud]

These are questions you could more easily find the answers to by simply visiting the individual fonts foundries and reading their font licensing FAQs.