Legitimate script faces

[Steven west]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Hi I've been looking for a few script faces that are available to use commercially on some product design.

I have came across a few that seem to do the job;
SNC Script
ILS Script
AlS Script
FLW Script

I've been trying to validate whether these are legitimate to use commercially and was wondering if anyone could help me verify this.

upon general internet searches the typefaces come up on many free font sites as belonging to
http://www.digitalgraphiclabs.com/default.html
were they say they have been released as free for commercial use as part of a pack of typefaces

many thanks for your help
steven

[Renko]

Don’t think they are legal.

For example SNC Script is officially known as Nuptial Script. AIS Script is Shelley Script Andante by Matthew Carter. ILS Script looks like a butchered Shelley Script Volante. And I absolutely don’t recommend to use FLW Script.

[Steven west]

thanks :) seems everything claiming to be free these days is a rip-off

[Ryan Maelhorn]

Free is so overrated.

[hrant]

Indeed. So is cheap.

hhp

[George Thomas]

@Steven

DGC fonts are legal to use although they are not well done. They tried being a foundry back in the 90's but failed at that so made their "retail package" free and quit making new fonts.

[Steven west]

@majus

thanks for the reply :)

looking at the use full comparisons renko managed to find;

'SNC Script is officially known as Nuptial Script. AIS Script is Shelley Script Andante by Matthew Carter.'

many of the DGL fonts look almost identical to other established scripts, I haven't studied each letter in detail yet but, is their enough, if any differences to make them not overlap the other people licenses ? I have heard of many cases of people just changing the copyrights and inserting their own.

Any further help would be much appreciated. I two am not a fan of finding 'free' pieces as indeed they are often not well done, bar the very few exeptions. Being used to working with fonts purchased from more recognised foundries - were the licensing isn't something I have had to worry about much in the past. Thus my knowledge of such is very much lacking in this area.

However as the client here is a rather low budget operation I said I would see if their was anything I could find for them. Although it is looking like I must use the powers of persuasion to get them to go for something better :)

thanks again

[hrant]

Note of course that legal and moral are not the same thing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20197710

hhp

[Steven west]

indeed ^^ I seem to remember a similar thing being briefly on the radio about Starbucks in the uk
but it somehow managed to avoid hitting the main news much

*edit yeh just read your link in more detail and it says Starbucks ^^ pretty crazy what they get away with

[Steven west]

I'm certainly not going to download everything that says 'free' next to it into my computers font library for it would make a rather vile mess lol, however it is a subject that I would find use full to know more of the finer points about.

on a site I found a similar topic and someone posted the following;

''The actual files of a font are protected by copyright, and using those files in a way not allowed by the license is illegal. The shapes of the letters in a font, however, are not protected and there have been many businesses over the years that made money copying popular fonts. Mind you, the quality of the copied fonts was generally pretty low...''

does anyone know if this statement is accurate.

thanks again :)

[hrant]

That's true in the US, but not most of Western Europe. IIRC in the Netherlands even scanning a printed font specimen is illegal.

hhp

[Steven west]

so forgive my stupidity, would the protection depend on which country the font was originally created in, or which country you are intending to use/replicate the font from.

[hrant]

That's a good question. I guess if you're in the US and you copy a font that's protected in Europe, they could come after you. The other way around is probably legal.

BTW most people would advise you to consult a lawyer... I'm not that mean.

hhp