Is fontsite Inc ripping well known fonts?

[Synthview]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Hello Typophiles,
I noticed some days ago Fontsite Inc. released a font using a name already used by another typographer I know. Looking further, we realised the Fontsite’s font is a copy of Excoffon’s Mistral (!)
In the meantime Fontsite slightly changed the font name and re-edited here
http://www.fontspring.com/fonts/fontsite/malacca
Looking deeper in the list of proposed fonts http://www.fontspring.com/search?q=fontsite+inc
is seems most of them are copies.
Or I am wrong?

[fontsquirrel]

The last sentence from Sean Cavanaugh's justification for the FontSite fonts says a lot:

You have to keep in mind that holding a copyright does not preclude one from entering into licensing and distribution arrangements as many companies did with URW.

Sean firmly maintains that he has been granted a distribution license to many URW/ATF/Softmaker fonts when he was employed by SoftMaker/ATF. And I remember buying his book when I graduated college in the mid nineties that included many of these fonts in the jacket CD. He's been distributing them for a long time.

Have you considered contacting FontSite and asking directly?

[Synthview]

No as I'm not a lawyer, I just find it strange as it changed names but keeping the first one the same (Mistral > Malaga > Malacca ; Opus > Optima etc).

[George Thomas]

It isn't likely you will get a reply. I sent an email to him a month or so ago asking about something to do with one of his fonts and never received a reply.

[fontsquirrel]

I'm not sure what you mean. Looks like Malaga was the name Softmaker gave it's version of Mistral. Perhaps FontSite needed to differentiate from them.

[Synthview]

Ok thanks for the infos. I didn't consider the possibility of acquiring copyrights in this case, and as I didn't find fonsite listed on fontshop nor myfonts, I wondered what’s going on ;-)

[hrant]

Sean Cavanaugh's justification for the FontSite fonts

I remember that thread! What a blast from the past.

hhp