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Posted by Gordon Burditt on 12/13/71 11:50
>> And did you violate copyright laws by doing so?
>
>Let's see from the microsoft site:
>http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/permission/default.mspx#EUE
>
>Fonts
>
>Microsoft licenses existing fonts from various font vendors, but also
>commissions original fonts. If you are looking to license a particular
>font, you should contact the vendor directly. The vendor will be listed
>in the font's copyright or trademark entry. Use our free Font
>properties extension to access this information.
>
>Until recently most fonts that include a Microsoft copyright or
>trademark notice have only been available as part of Microsoft
>products. Although some fonts remain Microsoft-exclusive a number of
>Microsoft fonts are now available to end users, ISVs, and OEMs under
>license from Ascender Corporation. These include Verdana, Georgia,
>Comic Sans MS, Microsoft Sans Serif, Nina, Tahoma, Wingdings, Webdings,
>and Trebuchet MS.
So how does Microsoft define "end user"? (Does it include someone
who's never used a Microsoft OS or EULA in his life? Or is it
someone who's agreed to a Microsoft End User License Agreement?)
And what are the terms of the license from Ascender Corporation?
Even if it's free, do I legally HAVE to get the fonts directly from
them and not be allowed to redistribute them? This sounds like a
heck of a lot of trouble just to view a web site.
In short: how would I legally get the fonts, and if you are referring
to a URL on your site, can you legally redistribute them?
>> There's no point in even trying since it won't work on my system anyway,
>> so I'll buy elsewhere.
This is the attitude of a *USER* (of a minority browser) I was
talking about, not that of a *DEVELOPER*. And you're not going to
be able to change it. If I (as a user) start seeing prompts from
my browser asking me to download plugins (e.g. for Flash), I know
darn well there aren't any for my system (based on trying and failing
many times), so I'll just give up on the site, or at least that
part of it.
>I hate MS software, but I understand the simple fact that 90% of the
>worlds computers have it running in some form or another and as a
>designer I need to deal with that.
You're not trying to tell me that the *only* font MS browsers
have is Comic Sans, are you? I didn't think so. Even Microsoft
isn't that stupid.
But you aren't talking here about how doing something the correct
way breaks in IE 27.932, so ignoring 90% of the market is not an
issue. The issue is whether you ignore the other 10%.
That test page you included a link to rendered *SOMETHING* on my
Firefox. I don't know whether it was in Comic Sans or not. I doubt
it. All 9 lines looked like they were in the same font, with
different color backgrounds. But it was at least *readable*. And
it looked a lot better than the "Kidnap" or "Random" fonts. Making
sure the page is unreadable if they don't have Comic Sans is going
in the wrong direction.
>I can't seem to make my customers
>come to the real world of open source OS's no matter how hard I try.
>Given time, maybe...
You shouldn't have to force people to one or the other. Going out
of the way to generate nasty prompts, and break the site if they
don't bend to your will is not a good thing for either the users
or the site owner.
>Are you as pure as you think you are?
>
>
>
> Gordon L. Burditt
Gordon L. Burditt
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