importing Fonts : Windows to Fedora

[Harry Moyes]

On Mon, 2003-12-15 at 06:34, Martin Bolte wrote:
> If you are working on a dual boot machine, you don't need to copy the
> files. I did it simply setting up symbolic links. And anyway as long as
> i have windows running, i even MIGHT have a license, am i wrong?

In my understanding, if you have a legal copy of Microsoft Windows,
and all you want to use of it is the fonts contained in it, feel free.

No need of a functional windows installation.

Up to winME the product was licenced in perpetuity, so providing you
retain the appropriate CD and documentation to justify the licence,
comply with the terms about use on a single computer system etc,
nothing AFAICS requires that any **specific** part of the product is
operational. If you happen to dump all the non functional bits of the
Windows system except the font files, hey its your computer.

Note that copyright is the only controlling legislation here, since
you can unpack the CAB files containing the fonts with third party
applications. Thus no agreement to the Microsft EULA is required to
"install" their product, and they thus cannot extend there rights
beyond what they get from copyright.

For truetype fonts not supplied with windows, not sourced by Microsoft,
the question is "have you a licence to use them at all". I am not aware
of people tying a requirement for **using** Microsoft Windows to their
licence. If you own a licence to an appropriate windows product that
includes a suite of fonts, AFAICS if you have a good licence to the
product, you have a good licence to use the fonts. Certainly products
that installed fonts into the general fonts pool in Windows clearly
intended those fonts to be available to other unspecified applications. 

For fonts supplied by Microsoft, outside of a licenced Microsoft product
i.e. additional fonts available for download for free from Microsoft's
website "for use with windows", I have no idea what the terms of the
licence Microsoft offered on the download, but I expect that at least
currently they do not permit operation with an alternative operating
system.

For random fonts acquired from documents people have published, or found
on J Random website, the question of windows or not is irrelevant. In
many cases you do not have a good licence to use them at all, and note
that the latest ploy for the BSA and its ilk is to audit compliance with
font licences so I'd advise giving this some thought.

So hang on to those venerable copies of windows 95 and WordPerfect 6.0
they still have value as valid licences for the embedded fonts.


IANAL, and live in a jurisdiction outside the USA.
And this is most certainly not legal advice.

Harry Moyes