Font licencing for commercial use / system font requirements

[Louisemcd]

Hi,

Font licencing is incredibly confusing for commercial purposes, and despite the myriad sites of information out there, difficult to determine the correct thing to be doing. I am looking for some clarity on the following to be sure we have covered off legal issues.

We have 15 computer stations used for the purpose of writing content for a commercial product. We believe we have the appropriate font licences but I am trying to determine if this is the case. They are used in a product sold commercially as follows.

• We use these two purchased fonts in a printed book annually -  Humanist 777 BT, Meta Office (regular/italic styles in roman, bold and black). Palatino is also used which I think is a system font on each computer.
• We also have an online subscription version of the same content that when published uses Arial as the first font option for all the web site text (regular /italic in roman, bold and black).
• We are planning a subscription downloadable App for remote use of the same content probably using Arial. The App sales wont be more than one thousand ever.

Do we need separate licences for printed formats, for the subscription website, and for the subscription App?

And if so will we need 15 licences (computer stations) for the system fonts per format (eg Arial and Palatino twice)?
Any insight on this would be very appreciated.

Cheers

Louise

[Ralf Herrmann]

For web and app use, it depends on whether you actually deliver the fonts with the content. For standard fonts like Arial, it would be typical not to embed them in the website or app, but just to call them on the user’s devices. In that case, you wouldn’t have to pay for a license. 

4 hours ago, Louisemcd said:

Do we need separate licences for printed formats, for the subscription website, and for the subscription App?

Usually, yes. Desktop use, web use, app use, ebook use and OEM use (bundling with devices) are handled separately. 

 

4 hours ago, Louisemcd said:

And if so will we need 15 licences (computer stations) for the system fonts per format (eg Arial and Palatino twice)?

The license for the system fonts is paid for through the operating system. If you use a legal copy of Windows for example, all fonts included in that software package are covered already. So you can use them in Word or any other app to write texts, print these texts out and so on. Note that all this is considered local “desktop use”. You are not allowed to give your system fonts to others, upload them to a web server without a proper license and so on. 

[Louisemcd]

Thanks Ralf for responding again. To be sure I understand this: 

For a commercially produced book:

- desktop use of the system font Palatino that comes with the operating system/Microsoft software covers the licence requirements per computer station - does not require purchasing separate Palatino licences per station even though it has a commercial print output

- use of non-system fonts like Meta Office and Humanist 777 - does require purchasing font licences per computer station.

 

For a website that is subscriber paid access:

- fonts not bundled with the site so its use of Arial font is local to the user device - does not require purchasing separate Arial licences.

 

For a mobile App with paid content that is downloaded (updated 6monthly):

- Arial font used local from user device in a mobile App - does not require a separate font licence

- Arial font when bundled in a mobile App - does require separate font licences (most likely as pay by number of downloads).

I think that's the breakdown from what you wrote.

 

[Ralf Herrmann]

Yes. 

And as an addition regarding the desktop licenses: The 15 computer stations only need a license when the font is installed/used on those 15 computers. If you have, for example, 14 authors writing articles in Word using Arial and then there is one graphic designer who puts the articles together using FF Meta, only that designer station would require a license, since that is the only computer where the FF Meta fonts are actually used. The 14 other stations don’t require a license just because they are involved in the project. It only matters where the actual font files are being used. 

[Louisemcd]

Thanks for your help.

Really excellent to have clarification on this.

Cheers

 

 

[Louisemcd]

I have one more question regarding web fonts. Are they the ideal format when used in a desktop app that is used offline?

Or  would  OpenType format bundled with the app be better?  

I may be confused on how they work as it's not my area but it appears that web fonts are Pay as you go or Subscription to a host site?

The reason is that it is a medical resource with drug dosages which means no room for error. The devices content will download on are mac and pc desktops, laptops and also tablet devices for use offline in remote areas.  

[Ralf Herrmann]

If it’s an app with bundled fonts, it requires an app license. Using standard TTF/OTF fonts would be typical. It just needs to run on the operating system the app is made for. 
“Web fonts” describes a usage – it’s not a font format. 

[bellefont]

Just a quick question, i found more information here about the different CC-Licenses and copyrighting and was wondering if it would apply in this case too. Would getting this type of license help when it came down to Font licensing?