RE: [tlug] copyright and theft [was: unicode font with czech ...]

[<burlingk@example.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Niels Kobschätzki
> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 6:28 PM


> 
> Well, but isn't the font copyright-protected? What about the 
> license for the font?
> 

Yes, in most cases.
I am pretty sure (Thought not 100% positive) that all or most
of the fonts installed by default in Windows are copyrighted.
This means that even if MS was not the original creator, you
still have to concider what the original creator allows them
to be used for.  ^^

Like I said, it is not realy a grey area.  People who want to
violate copyrights may choose to believe that it is.  Saddly
that sort of thought is how this became a problem to begin with.

People looked at fair use laws and used them.  Then when things
became different, they did other things choosing to believe that
they fell into a grey area because of fair use laws.

The example that has caused the greatest issues probably started
with video.  VCR's and DVD recorders are a prime example of fair
use. You can use them to record your TV shows while you are out
so that you can watch them later.  It's coming from a public
signal feed, most people could arguably have gotten it for free,
and it is for personal use.  There are not a lot of issues there.

Enter the problem.  People try to delude themselves into thinking
that the same applies to making copies of commercial DVD's and
cassetes.  Odds are as long as they just use them for personal use,
no one is going to notice, and they won't get caught.  However,
if a thousand people do this, it starts to cut into proffits.  Also,
many people go the next step and send digitized versions out over
the web.  Most people now realise that that goes well beyond fair
use.  How many people download the latest movies before they see
them in the theaters?  More importantly, how many download them
rather than see them in the theaters?  (I am not asking for a
show of hands here. >:P )  

Even here though, there are a few grey areas, especially for
those of us that are overseas.  Fans of many of the most popular
animes can get them within twenty four hours fansubbed, high
quality digitized copies.  The only thing that makes it a grey
area and not a flat out no-no, is the fact that these groups
leave the advertisements in tact at the start and end of the
shows.  They get it from the public television stream, and
not from a DVD.  For those of us actually living in Japan, we
can still patronize the sponsors of our favorite serries.
Don't be fooled though.  Most "grey areas" are not grey because
of the actual wording of the law.  They are grey because of
what the actual copyright holders will let you get away with.

The Japanese media industry is much more forgiving of such
Initiatives than the American industry.  They understand that
a happy fan is a fan that buys merchandise. :P  A happy fan is
more inclined to go buy a copy of a DVD, even if they already
have the same video on their hard drive.  A happy fan is going
to tell their friends about a serries, friends who may or may
not think to grab a copy from the web, but rather might just
watch it on television.  As for the sponsors, they still
get plugged at the start and end of each eppisode, and sometimes
halfway through.  :P  In a commercial DVD the only plugs they
get are the ones worked directly into the serries.  Those do
happen on occasion.  I was recently watching an anime that
had a Starbucks in it.  :P  The funny thing is that they
also had a Nakudo hanburger place.  :P  They just chopped
the golden arches in half and jacked up the name.  >:P I
wonder how much Starbucks paid them for that one.

-- 
Ken