Richard said:
toys-r-us tried suing a company for using the same font and color scheme and
lost.
where's the documentation that proves they own the copyright?
if they have it, a copy will be in the library of congress records.
bet ya it ain't there.
You entirely miss the point.
The toys-r-us suit has absolutely nothing to do with the copyright on fonts.
It is the font file, the .TTF file, that is copyright, not the use of that
font on a web site or a toy or anywhere else. That is what you get when you
buy a font. The TTF file and the right to use it, as conferred upon you by
the copyright holder.
Some fonts are not in the public domain, specifically the one the OP wished
to use. If you do not have copyright to the font file or a legal copy of it
then you are in breach of copyright if you use it, anywhere.
toys-r-us lost because they (most probably) do not own copyright to the font
and can therefore not claim breach of copyright. Even if they hold a legal
copy (read a copy purchased from the designer and copyright holder of the
font) then they still have no legal claim on the use of that font by others
that may also have a legal copy of the font. If the font is in the public
domain then toys-r-us have absolutely no legal claim against anybody else
using that font.
However, if toys-r-us in fact did produce the font and therefore held
copyright on it (by merely creating the TTF file as a piece of work) then,
if somebody else used that font and toys-r-us could prove that it was their
TTF file that was used then they would win the suit.
The library of congress also has nothing to do with this. Copyright comes
into being as soon as a peice of work (say a TTF font file) is produced.
Nobody has to tell anybody anything about it at all. It is simply there, and
it is an international thing, not limitied to one country that may have a
building they call the library of congress.
Do you really understand what the terms copyright, public domain and fair
use really mean?
Cheers
Richard.
