Libertine Open Fonts Project releases version 2.1.0

But like he said, what does that have to do with patents and IP and lawyers? The linked web pages is talking about "when it comes to software you'll see copyrights and patents even on the most elementary fonts." How does that stop me from buying a copy of Fontographer and making my own fonts and giving them away? It doesn't.

Sorry. Not in the United states at least. It's a specificly says so in the copyright law.

No copyright no typeface. :)

It has to do with what Fonts are. They are not artistic expressions, but practical usable tools that have artistic elements. Freedom of the press and all sorts of crazy stuff like that I don't understand.

But to protect typefaces there two ways to do it:
Trademark the name of the font.
If the font is unique and wonderfull in some way then it is possible to get a 'design patent' on it although I expect that that would be difficult.

In fact many many major copies (oh.. say Bitstream) got their start by simply pirating established popular fonts of bigger companies. Very simply they copied the design and re-sold them under different names at a cheaper price.

If you ever heard the term 'junk font' this is were it comes from. Lots of very crappy (not bitstream!) companies started up and copied fonts off of each other and made up fancy fonts.. All of these were just crap.

If you go on the internet and look for 'free fonts' (nocost) you can find thousands and thousands of ugly, retarded looking fonts that look ok until you try to use them. They look clunky, dirty, and often are hard to read.

Fonts are specificly patentable items if they are new and unique.

Unfortunately for people who make fonts for a living they've been around for about... oh... 10. 20 thousand years now? :P Printing press has been around for how long?

Pretty long when it comes to patentable technology. Your going to be challenged to come up with something very unique.

Also this is very U.S. specific stuff.

See 'Design Patents' in Wikipedia. This is a entirely different realm then copyright or patent law involving programs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent

Also see a blurb about copyright law involving fonts there also.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
"Typefaces

In the United States, typeface designs are not covered by copyright, but may be covered by design patents if sufficiently novel. Germany (in 1981) passed a special law for typeface protection (Schriftzeichengesetz). It adds some specific extensions to the design patent law (Geschmacksmustergesetz) such that typefaces can be registered as designs.

The United Kingdom (in 1989) have passed a law making typeface designs copyrightable. The British law is retroactive, so designs produced before 1989 are also copyrighted if the copyrights would not have already expired."

Of course Adobe and such would like to have stuff under software patents...

I bet it's a thousand times easier and cheaper to get a software patent then it is to get a new design patent on typefaces.

If you have any specific complains about free fonts, please show your appreciation in the form of bug reports.

"Professional" means you paid a lot of money for it. Things you paid a lot of money for are automatically better than the other stuff, because otherwise it would mean you've wasted money. People don't like wasting money, so they admire things they've paid a lot of money for.

"Amateurish" means it was made by someone who loved to make it. That's what "amateur" means -- one who works for love. (No, not that kind of love.) Sometimes this means their passion exceeded their grasp of the arts. Sometimes this means they went far beyond paid-for endurance to get it just right. It's a mixed bag.

To give some examples from the real world, Emacs and TeX are amateurish, while EDLIN and Notepad are professional. OpenOffice is *both*, and still recovering.