2nd Hand / Antiquarian Digital Type

[interrobang_lp]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

It was bound to happen right?

A "type foundry" goes out of business, and no one picks up the rights, nor the software, yet because their product is digital, it will never degrade, go out of stock, out of print, or out of existence. So just as there is a market for 2nd hand and antique metal types from long defunct foundries (in the real sense of the word), might there not be a market for 2nd hand, orphaned, digital types?

That is to say, what happens to the EULA when there is no stake-holder left to defend that license.

And rather than this being a devil's advocate game, I actually wish to email a friend a better, more complete cut of a face I have from a dead "foundry" which he needs for a job. The cut he has is, puzzlingly, incomplete. (Imagine that. I thought being "out of sorts" was only a problem for us physical type folk.)

I was going to proof foundry type I have, and sell him a proof. Why can't I just sell him the digital font?

Seriously. Why couldn't I set up shop selling 2nd hand digital "fonts"?

michael babcock
interrobang letterpress

[hrant]

Interesting angle.

I think it's extremely rare for a person not to
have heirs that inherit anything they "owned".

So you'd have to find the heirs and get their OK.
Although I suspect that most of them would say:
"Huh? Yeah sure, go ahead."

hhp