Posted by David Haynes on 12/12/12 11:50

Gordon Burditt wrote:
>>> 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

Comic Sans MS falls into the class of fonts known collectively as
"Microsoft's TrueType core fonts". These are available for installation
on various Linux and Solaris systems via rpm, apt-get or other
distributions.

These distributions may be found at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/corefonts/

There seems to be some legal conditions around these fonts since the RPM
spec makes reference to taking special pains not to be seen as
redistributing the fonts.

Running the font shell extension tool on Comic Sans MS does not reveal
any Licensing information and the web page for the core TrueType fonts
pack simply says that Microsoft is no longer distributing the package.

A little digging reveals this gem:
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'.

Checking on the Ascender web site indicates that these fonts are
available for license but does not supply any details.

Bottom line. It is probably OK for an individual to download these fonts
for use in Linux/Solaris environments. It is probably *not* OK to
redistribute these fonts without a license.

-david-

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