Bitmap Fonts Not Copyrightable!

[+Gemintronic]

I wanted to make a game using the Aquarius character set. I did try to contact the possible rights holder for the Aquarius with no response months ago. The general consensus was this (copyright) was no big deal.. which didn't answer the question am I stomping on someones copyright. No sense making a homebrew only to get sued by some troll afterwards.

 

Turns out fonts and bitmap fonts are not copyrightable. For some reason scalable fonts are:

http://www.zoklet.ne...l/sf-legal.html

http://www.renpy.org...s_and_Copyright

 

So, for the Aquarius, I have a few things going for me:

 

1. The current rights holder is not definitively known.

2. I attempted to contact what I thought may be the rights holder.

3. Bitmap fonts are not copyrightable.

Edited February 15, 2012 by theloon

[+LS650]

Interesting (to me anyhow):

 

http://stason.org/TULARC/business/copyright/3-9-Are-fonts-copyrighted.html

 

3.9) Are fonts copyrighted?

First, let's distinguish between a font and a typeface. A typeface is

the scheme of letterforms (which is really what you're probably talking

about), and the font is the computer file or program (or for that matter,

a chunk of metal) which physically embodies the typeface.

 

A font may be the proper subject of copyright, but the generally accepted

rule is that a typeface embodied in the font is not (see Eltra Corp. v.

Ringer, 579 F.2d 294, 208 U.S.P.Q. 1 (4th Cir., 1978), and the House of

Representatives Report on the Copyright Law Revision, 94-1476, 94th

Congress, 2d Session at 55 (1976), reprinted in 1978 U.S. Cong. and

Admin. News 5659, 5668).

 

The letterforms themselves are not copyrightable under U.S. law as a

typeface. 37 CFR 202.1(e). A font is copyrightable if it adds some

level of protectable expression to the typeface, but that protection does

not extend to the underlying uncopyrightable typeface itself (see 17

U.S.C. 102(b)).

 

In essence, a font will be protectable only if it rises to the level of a

computer program. Truetype and other scalable fonts will therefore be

protected as computer programs, a particular species of literary works.

Bitmapped fonts are not copyrightable, because in the opinion of the

Copyright Office, the bitmap does not add the requisite level of

originality to satisfy the requirement for copyright.

 

So, to summarize this point, a typeface is not copyrightable. While a

scalable font might be copyrightable as a program, merely copied the

uncopyrightable typeface, and creating your own font, either scalable or

bitmapped, is probably not an infringement, assuming you did not copy any

of the scalable font's code.

 

Two warnings:

 

First, even if typefaces can't be copyrighted, they can be patented under

existing design patent laws. 35 U.S.C. 171. Copying a typeface and

distributing such a font, while not a violation of copyright, might be an

infringement of the patent.

 

Second, Congress has been considering design protection legislation for

many years (most recently, the 102nd Congress' H.R. 1790) which, if

passed, would protect typeface design. If such a bill is enacted, the

above opinion will be obsolete and incorrect.

[+Gemintronic]

Thank goodness bitmaps fonts are not considered works of art:

http://waxy.org/2011/06/kind_of_screwed/

[pimpmaul69]

I can say this is good news for me. I have lots of experience in taking just a few bitmap fonts and recreating an entire alphabet. I have done this hundreds of times.

[intvnut]

Just a couple of thoughts on the Intellivision side of things: This puts the Intellivision's GROM in an interesting situation. The GROM on the Intellivision has the Intellivision bitmap font in the first 219 slots (or thereabouts). The remainder of the GROM, though, contains a packed bit of EXEC code that didn't fit in the EXEC ROM, and the messages "Mattel Electronics presents" and "Copr @ 1984 Mattel".

 

So, you could theoretically copy the Intellivision typeface, but the GROM.BIN itself has copyrighted code in it.

 

Some games, such as B-17 Bomber, do display the packed EXEC code as graphics. The "flak" graphics are actually bits of the EXEC. :-) If you want to make a free GROM replacement, you need to put random garbage in that last part of the GROM.

[+bhall408]

On 2/16/2012 at 10:26 AM, intvnut said:

Some games, such as B-17 Bomber, do display the packed EXEC code as graphics. The "flak" graphics are actually bits of the EXEC. ? If you want to make a free GROM replacement, you need to put random garbage in that last part of the GROM.

Oh my!

 

I guess that was one creative way of saving some memory back in the day!

 

Did you put garbage in that space in the miniGROM?

 

 

[intvnut]

5 hours ago, bhall408 said:

Did you put garbage in that space in the miniGROM?

Originally I did not.  The original MiniGROM was a tweaked version of the CGA font, with the CGA pictographs in the upper part of the GROM.

 

It turns out that the idea of basing a replacement on CGA had some precedent:  The alphanumeric portion of the TutorVision font is also a tweaked version of the CGA font.  Much less tweaked than the version in final version of MiniGROM, in fact.

 

I guess eventually we replaced it with a more heavily tweaked version of the CGA font, added the Intellivision pictograph tiles, and added some random tiles at the end.  Compare and contrast:

• http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/grom_svg/
• http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/minigrom_svg/

Edited July 18, 2020 by intvnut

[+bhall408]

@intvnut Those links were helpful!

 

We ended up trying a blend of the original character set with the miniGROM random bits in the code area. If you have not already tried that combo (I'd be surprised), let me know and I can email you a copy.

 

The fact that the original exec was so starved for space it put code in the GROM sort of cemented that we'll be taking the HLE approach for supporting any additional routines that miniExec isn't already handling 

 

 

[carlsson]

I still don't understand why not the owners of the Intellivision IP has not released the system ROMs to the community, at least for inclusion in unmodified form (kind of what Amstrad did with ZX Spectrum ROMs once upon a time). I see why the IP for the games themselves is protected and how it still today can represent a value, but protecting 40+ year old system ROMs makes little sense to me, compared to the huge benefit it would give said IP owners (who appear to be very active on this forum, marketing their new products) in term of community acceptance and goodwill.

Edited July 21, 2020 by carlsson

[+bhall408]

If that day comes, or they become available for license, we're ready!

 

In the meantime, we removed the dependency. Thanks to jz for blazing that trail!

[mr_me]

10 hours ago, carlsson said:

I still don't understand why not the owners of the Intellivision IP has not released the system ROMs to the community, at least for inclusion in unmodified form (kind of what Amstrad did with ZX Spectrum ROMs once upon a time). I see why the IP for the games themselves is protected and how it still today can represent a value, but protecting 40+ year old system ROMs makes little sense to me, compared to the huge benefit it would give said IP owners (who appear to be very active on this forum, marketing their new products) in term of community acceptance and goodwill.

Maybe all you have to do is ask.