Copyright in Fonts/Typefaces

[Adam Hodgkin <adam.hodgkin@gmail.com>]

Someone on this list will know the answer to this question. Is 
there a liability in distributing PDF files with typefaces 
embedded therein?

To explain how the issue arises:

Exact Editions has a digital editions service enabling publishers 
to distribute/publish magazines and books in a way similar to 
Google Book Search (ie an access based system in which all the 
collections and accounts are fully searchable and linkable). Its 
'access-based' rather than a file-download system, which is what 
most book and periodical publishers have used hitherto.

There are several advantages in the access-based approach (its 
faster, more interactive and more citable), but there are also 
some drawbacks. EG its not easy for a user to download a complete 
issue to read the book or magazine off-line. Some publishers dont 
want to facilitate this option, some are happy to do so.

Our system allows/encourages the publisher to offer the option of 
a 'complete issue PDF download' to subscribers, if that is 
something they wish to do. We then offer as a download option, a 
version of the PDF file that the publisher originally submitted 
for databasing (our core solution does not use PDFs per se -- 
Like GBS the images that go into user's browsers are JPEGs). But 
it was suggested to me the other day that this alterntive 
distribution of PDFs could be a problem for the publisher (or for 
us) if the PDF file included the digital typeface. There would be 
liability for the publisher in distributing and copying these 
files without the permission of the designer/owner of the 
typeface used in the PDF file.

So many PDF files are now distributed through the web that I find 
it hard to believe that this can be an issue of liability. I 
should also admit to being rather embarrassed to not knowing the 
answer to this question off the top of my head!

Adam Hodgkin