The penalties for IP violations range from: The consequences of using an unlicensed font is the same as the consequences of using any unlicensed software. This is what separates design professionals from your clients cousin who knows a kid down the street with a copy of Photoshop. Respect the intellectual property rights of other creatives just as you would want your rights respected. Some fonts allow you to send a copy of the font to a printer for the sole use of reproducing the work you created but some strictly prohibit this. Most fonts prohibit web embedding or converting to a different format for web embedding.
USING FONTS FOR COMMERCIAL USE LICENSE
Even when you purchase a font sometimes the license prohibits you from using it in certain commercial works like in a logo but allow you to use it for other printed materials. There are lots of other issues with font license violations than simply not paying for a license. Your old client sues you or you both get sued by the copyright holder Worst Case ScenarioĬopyright holder sees their font in some printed material or on a website and contacts your former client who tells them you did the work.Ĭopyright holder demands the work not to be used or sends a dmca take down notice. Does illegal mean the police can lock you up or does it mean that you can be held civilly and financially responsible. I have a clause in my contract that regarding the use of copyrighted or unlicensed material that my client can't be held responsible for something I provide them and that I can't be held responsible for something they provided me.Īlso the answer to your question depends on what your definition of illegal is. You can be held civilly responsible and get sued by the copyright owner and you have also put your client at risk because they could be sued as well. If you distributed the actual font with your work then maybe you could be punished. If you only used a font in your work that you were not licensed to use then you can not be punished under the law. If you did not reproduce the font and distribute it you have not broken any U.S. Transmission of copyrighted sound recordings. Unauthorized reproduction, distribution, rental or digital most of the actual federal laws that are punishable criminally are mostly geared toward sound and video recording copyright infringement.įederal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the With that being said the actual legalities of it depend on what country you live in but in the U.S. As a designer who is paid for creative work it's just wrong to not respect others creative work. Peace of mind and a happy life are easier to attain when we don't do things that we have to justify.įirst off I agree with Alan and other posters answers regarding the ethical and right thing to do.
"Everyone else does it" helps us to justify it some more. It is an unfortunate fact of human nature that when we do something we know is wrong, we justify it by doing it again. Buying a license is the least one can do to give back for the opportunity to benefit from it.įor better or worse, we live in an era where it's incredibly easy to steal little bits of someone's livelihood without apparent consequence. A font is usually a one-person effort a good font takes hundreds of hours of painstaking work. The fact that anyone can copy a book, a font or a piece of music makes it easy to ignore or forget that the person who created it has a family and pays rent or a mortgage. Copyright and patent laws are there so that they can receive a decent exchange for their work and not be ripped off. What follows are my opinions.Īrtists and innovators put a lot of themselves into what they do.
Consider that you would not have asked this question if you didn't feel uneasy about it. It is better to pay for something you use, not just for the person who created it but for you, too. "Possible" is not the same as "likely," however, so you probably don't need to move to a new city and change your name (not right away, anyway). If you have no license to use a particular font, but you gained financially by using it, you don't have a defense. And, yes, it is certainly possible that someone might "contact" you on the subject, depending on the circumstances. It's almost redundant to point out that violating someone's copyright is not only unethical, it is illegal.
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