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I think that's a wise policy and all that I keep on my system is what I can use commercially, be it free or paid for. It's a good policy for Poser/Studio content as well. I'm not sure how popular free stuff is these days but back when I started with Poser, it was a big thing. About six years ago, I had a big cull of the runtime, scratching out anything that was free that I didn't have clear permission to use commercially. It's just not worth the risk.
I bet you'd never guess, by my presence here, that I am a branding fanatic, which is why I dislike using different fonts for print interiors versus ebooks, websites or epubs (which are zipped websites). The laws for font copyrights differ between US, UK, Canada and other countries and although I love free stuff, I typically shy away from unpaid font software and images. Unlike the UK, the US doesn't allow fonts to be copyrighted but software is protected under US copyright laws and US law considers fonts to be software ... so there is, in essence, an enforcable copyright protection on US fonts. Many font masters have patented such for added protection. Most font software, images and assets we pay for, have licenses that restrict use. Even Daz licenses have restrictions. Frank Martinez is one of several attorneys that specializes in font lawsuits and his repertoire includes a suite against NBCU and Univeral studios for utilizing a free conversion tool from Font Squirrel to convert and alter fonts that they embedded on websites. The suit was for 3.5 million. Part of a suit value is the cost of the license x the number of downloads. Imagine being a million dollar seller and having mistakenly used an inappropriately licensed font. What if you sold 10,000 books x $200.00. That's 2 million there! Yikes! The most expensive book I ever purchased was $70 bucks for the Art of Tim Burton and that hardcover beast must have cost a fortune to print. I can't imagine a mass market book that sports a $200 profit margin. Paid font commercial usage licenses often exclude ebooks and website usage, which sucks, and are limited to print forms only unless you contact the copyright holder (font creator) and arrange/buy other contracted usage agreements. Even then only some fonts are available via TypeKit etc. An example would be if you bought the Adobe Master Suite Collection CS6 collection prior to the cloud days, which included several fonts, and used the Adobe Garamond Pro to write a book, you could only sell it in a print format. Content of ebooks, epubs, executable games or anything that could be downloaded as part of a data stream via a web browser is a restricted use on most paid fonts. So even when we pay for fonts/images etc the licenses always has usage restrictions. A good rule of thumb regarding freebies is google the owner (not the font site) and contact them directly by visting their website. If it's free to use commercially, screen print the usage terms. Any legit font/image has a creator who has a presence somewhere and just because someone uploaded or shared a font/image doesn't mean they own the rights to it. For further reading here is a link to a novelist, best selling author of The Loving on the Edges series, who had to pay attorney fees and money for a photo used on her none commercial blog despite her thinking it was fair use.
http://www.sheknows.com/community/living/blogger-beware-you-can-get-sued-using-photos-you-dont-own-your-blog
I did a book trailer using original art, made the character in photshop and used my own photos and camera video pieces along with some original music. I tried to bring in a bunch of layers to give it a 3D look but it still felt flat. I was watching my video thinking, this character doesn't quite match the one I made for the cover and I need this to be more 3D'ish but I don't have time to learn another trade. During that thought, I noticed the Daz commercial in the playlist column and it caught my eye. It was an ad for Izabella and although my trailer was for a different genre, I did have a book at amazon about fairies etc and thought I have to have this Izabella. She haunted me for days and I sat on the fence for weeks. The bad thing about being a cross genre author is the range of images and marketing tools for branding can seem too diversified. I am sure the Daz sales force must be thinking this woman has no clue about what she wants to make. The images needed for one decent trailer is fairly substantial and if you ever crossover genres the cost to accumulate a library can be costly, but for me it is worth it because I cannot write and model at the same time. I have yet to use Daz products for my covers or trailer but when I do, I suspect the results will be vastly improved.
Damn, I would have a lot more money if I would have sued facebook for illegally using my image instead of just sending them a take down notice. It was actually facebook using an image of my daughter back when they had this thing "send your friend a growing gift" They had taken an image of my daughter dressed as a fairy and put her on a mushroom and people were sending it to each other. As it was I had to threaten them with a law suit to get it taken down.
ETA - the image had been lifted from my website, and had never been posted to facebook.
It's worth noting the difference between using fonts in cover art and for the text of an ebook. If the font text is part of an image (and rasterised, not embedded in a PDF), the regular license should cover its use in all cases (my own query with a font designer is about copyright attribution which he seems to require for use of more than 12 characters - I need to know if this must appear on the book covers themselves or if it is something I can require publishers add to their copyright page).
Embedding the font into an ebook so that it can be read by ereader software is a different matter, as it requires distribution of the font software itself and that needs a special license. I don't think there is much point to this however, as readers of ebooks are able to choose the font they prefer to read with and are not likely to be interested in having one forced on them.
It is also worth noting that for the text of a printed book's interior, you will be embedding the font into a PDF and distributing it to your printers. Most licenses allow for this but some require that printers delete the font from their computers after printing - what that means for print on demand services, which keep your files, including the font, on their computers for use as required, is uncertain and so in those cases you should seek further consent from the font copyright holder. To be honest, I think that there are some very good open source text fonts now and would recommend those to self and indie publishers.
Books covers are often ruined by using all those crappy fonts you can find on the Web. Novice designers think it'll add uniqueness by picking some weird gothic font, when it turns you no one can read what it says. Better to hone your design skills in other ways than to use decorative fonts as a crutch.
Just stick with the standards. If you really need them, you can get huge batches of licensed fonts with programs like Corel Draw. Avoid the freebies unless you've vetted them. A good vetting source is Google Fonts -- no one remembers about them, and they are the best source of fonts on the Web. They list the copyright owner of the font and its licensing, which (as far as I can tell) is always Open Font. Their list is curated, so they only add a few fonts at a time, and each one is checked and verified.
Great point. Google Fonts also allows embedding for websites.
In the US, there is no legal obligation to include a font copyright attribution, UNLESS it is part of your licensing agreement. Also, no one can require you to include a copyright notice on a cover. HOWEVER, if something is trademarked, service marked, patented or registered (depending on the usage and age of the element), then you should include that symbol next to the logo or symbol that should bear that mark.
I do think, however, out of politeness you should include copyright notices for fonts. Personally, I prefer the old practice of including a Colophon at the end of the book which includes info on where it was printed and what fonts were used.
Ditto. I very rarely install anything that I cannot use in a commercial project.
BTW: If you reach out to a creator, they may make an exception for you. Years ago (around 2003), I wanted to buy a set of 3D models and some textures from a vendor who had created them for Lightwave, but he didn't allow commercial use. I contacted him prior to purchase and told him I was an independent, small publisher working on a game book and wanted to use his models to create print images. He was very excited about that and told me his "no commercial use" restriction was really for people creating video games, movies and TV (his models were detailed enough to use on the History Channel, who had actually paid him to use them in a few TV shows). He had no problem giving me permission to make still images. So, I bought the set and did use a few of his models. He was very gracious.
Another story: The font we use for our game book is called "Shabby," and it is shareware. I paid the author a $30 donation back in 2003 to use the font -- and I have kept a receipt of the donation, including printed copies in my files... just in case it ever comes up.
Hi,
They do seem to have that in the agreement... this is the passage:
I'm not sufficiently familiar with copyright law on either side of the pond to feel comfortable using the fonts without having a writen clarification from them, though the way things are going, I'm not feeling hopeful about getting that or my last order. I don't know what to think of the situation but after more than seven weeks now, it is now trying my patients.
I sincerely doubt that the requirement to put the copyright notice on the image is enforceable in the US. And if it came up, I would challenge them. US Copyright law (and I'm not a lawyer, but I have studied this in college and since as a working creative professional) does not require this level of attribution. As for their requirement, I would tell them no and include it in a Colophon or on my copyright page.
You, of course, should do as your concience (and legal advice) dictates.
@philebus I have had many careers during my life. I opened my first brick and mortar business (a rented premise) at age 19. I had no help, no family (foster child) and 350.00 to my name.By age 20 having two rental locations I procured a loan from the FBDB and after buying an elaborate insurance policy, built a two story commercial building on their dime. Later, at the final stages, two days before the grand opening, a huge on-site accident took place. A worker made a huge mistake and the building literally collapsed. Despite the fact I didn't own a hammer, I was held accountable. Supposedly I was "in charge" and deemed to be the general contractor and by law you cannot sue yourself, so I had no case against anyone else or myself. The oweness was on me and I was ignorant of the law. While others my age were attending university I was going bankrupt. I felt ripped off. I took a few law courses, earned a degree in insurance and for 5 years educated professionals on the fine print of contracts, namely insurance contracts. Later I opened another shop and another ... My start in graphics design started with creating my own ad. One day, my advertising agent cocked her head to one side and said, "I'm going on a sabbatical and I recommended you to replace me as the sales advertising manager." Three month later, thanks to a great staff, I became the sales advertising manager for that newspaper firm. One career led to another. The one thing that those diversified careers had in common was a single truth. If you are reimbursed for a service, you owe a greater due diligence of care than one does as a volunteer. Despite two degrees, my primary education has been the school of hard knocks. My motto was high risk ... high return. Despite being a risk taker, when I find myself meandering in the murky grey zone of the law, time has taught me to run like hell. You appear to be in a grey zone. Most people do not buy a book based on it's cover but most people will bypass a book unless the cover visually grabs their eye. It's never the font. It's the story the cover portrays.
Mike is referring to US law related to reproduction of font glyphs as not protectable, as opposed to the digital file itself. There are some countries in the EU that provide for protection of the glyph design, but this is generally reserved for highly distinctive typefaces where provenance is known. Many of the freebie fonts on places like Dafont are themselves ripoffs of other fonts, some of which are decades old.
I don't necessarily recommend ignoring the copyright or licensing of fonts found on the web, but as I've said earlier, the easier approach is to just not use them anway. There are TONS of free, curated fonts available directly from Google. Trash your freebie fonts and start over. Every font on Google lists its copyright owner and provided license. (You may notice some of the fonts on Google are the same ones on Dafont. Well, now you have the paperwork trail that shows who claims ownership of the font, and under which license they are offering it.)
As for putting copyright notices on images, this is generally a matter of licence, not copyright. If you purchase art from someplace like Shutterstock, you agree totheir license, which may require attribution, though typically not on the image itself. If such attribution is called for, it's a breach of license to not include it. The remedy is their discretion, and I'm sure would depend on specifics. A cover from a NYT bestseller might get their attention over some indy-published premade cover.
The above is not legal advice.
I'm actually surprised no one has mentioned fonts freely available for commercial via Linux. You don't need to run Linux in order to get access to their fonts and they are all provided with an open license which makes them perfect for commercial use. Best of all, they are completely free. They do have some good ones for print work.
Not only are the ones that come with any Linux distro free to use, most, if not all, fonts designed to work in Linux by others are also distributed with an open license. There are literally hundreds of great fonts that are free to use and don't cost anything. And, yes, most are true type fonts and work well in Windows. I'm not sure about Mac since I don't know what Macs use, but I'm sure they work there, too, if Macs can use True Type fonts.
Thanks for the link
I ended up designing my own font for my last book because I wasn't sure what i could or couldn't use.
I spend 90% of my pc time in Ubuntu and I never thought of looking at linux fonts. Great suggestion.
Here is a link to my first science fiction eBook cover made on Daz3D, Blender, and Photoshop Elements:
https://www.daz3d.com/gallery/#images/333176
I just started using both Daz3D and Blender in January this year. I have been having fun with both writing the books and creating the cover. I'm already working on the next book, too.
John
Nice. Have you published the book yet?
Yes, "Valerye" is currently available for free as an e-book from Smashwords.com, which also sends versions to many other publishers (B & N, Apple, Kobo, etc.). It is $0.99 at Amazon, since I cannot currently set the price at free. Once it is out for a while, I wll likely raise the price. I have another book I already have a draft completed. The cover is in the very early stages though. My prior books have just used photos and Photoshop.
Thank you!
John
I'm going through and organizing my fonts now. About 95% of what I've collected have commercial licenses. Only a few don't. I try to sort them as I pick them up. The problem is, sometimes I can't see what I have in so many different folders. A bundle from here, a bundle from there, with folders and subfolders and more subfolders. Easy to accidentally buy something more than once, because of all the different bundles available between the various graphic design websites.
So I've started a "dump" folder for all paid, commercial license fonts I own, just so I can quickly check by name or preview in a font viewer to see what it looks like.
I just finished my first premade cover for sale. I'm taking custom orders, and working on filling up the store on my own site, then promoting it. It will take a few months to get things where I want them.
@deathbycannon That's a stunning cover! The top seems a little bare, but it's beautiful.
@philebus Love your style! Very cool!
@knittingmommy That's a good idea. Hadn't thought of the Linux fonts.
@Tobor Great idea about Google Fonts.
Thanks Llynara
Here's my latest, I have been working on dynamic light and color in my compositions.
Ooh, I really liked that render when I first saw and it looks good as a cover.
That is fantastic @Deathbycannon.
Thanks Llynara & Worlds_Edge
BTW anyone recignize the font on this book? The author just bought one of my book covers for his 3rd book and he wants the font to match, but doesn't know what it is. I'm curently searching "gothic" fonts to see if I can find it.
I found it, font squirrel has this fantastic thing where you can drop an image in and it will tell you what the font is! Lucky for me he also said I could "use on that was close" because that one costs $35 off to find a free one
Farquharson regular - https://www.fontspring.com/fonts/quadrat/farquharson The bottome one.
Edit - Oops, I missed that you've already found it. Sorry about that. I think I saw it for $25.
Yep, if you buy just one and not the family you can get it at $25. I'm super confused on the licensing though so I sent them an email. I do like it better then any of the free ones I saw that were similar so as long as they say that I can do as many book covers as I want for $25 I'll go ahead and buy whatever license they tell me I need.
When people are paying upwards of $500 for a custom book cover of that quality, and extra $25 isn't that bad, even if it's only for one book. Just pass the cost onto the buyer. If they want a custom font then naturally it should cost more, not only for the lincencing, but also for the time and effort you spent looking for it.
Not a custom book cover, the customer bought a premade and when you 1st start out your not making $500 for a book cover. Your mostly working with self published people that can barely afford to get their books published. The big bucks are paid by the publishing companies, and they are very hard to break into. Without a portfolio and book samples you can't get in at all - so you start by working for peanuts because what your mostly trying to do is get your work on as much stuff as possible so you get noticed by the big guns. I ate the $25 and made next to nothing on the cover, but it's doing more good for growing my name as an artist being on a book on amazon then it is sitting on my hard drive. It's only the 2nd cover I've sold artwork wise and at this stage I need to grow my name. Now if we were talking photography, I made $300 - $600 an image with my pet photography depending on usage, but I was well established in that publishing market. When I started I was photographing pets for free....
Congrats on selling two covers! It's more than I've managed so far, LOL. To keep the pricing flexible, you could do exclusive and non-exclusive covers. Non-exclusives being more generic and sold a number of times at a cheaper price, exclusives being more costly and unique, with only 1 sold. I'm looking into that now because of the time and investment involved.