<story><title>Where do fonts come from? Monotype, mostly</title><url>https://thehustle.co/where-do-fonts-come-from/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gorgoiler</author><text>How come these old typefaces like Helvetica and Gill Sans not in the public domain?  The article mentions Helvetica being rolled in with one of Monotype’s purchases yet Helvetica is from the 1940s?&lt;p&gt;Hard copies of Shakespeare have individual copyright because of their unique prefaces.  Are these typefaces in copyright still because of the individual numerical descriptions being the work under protection, rather than the actual shape?&lt;p&gt;Is it something similar to
How X’s recording of Bach’s Y concerto with The Z Ensemble is in copyright, but the musical score itself is in the public domain?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pakyr</author><text>It looks like[0] as of the start of this year, only works made in 1927 or earlier are in the public domain. Copyright terms have regularly been extended by Congress and they are astoundingly long now.&lt;p&gt;[0]&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;copyrightlately.com&amp;#x2F;public-domain-day-2023&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;copyrightlately.com&amp;#x2F;public-domain-day-2023&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Where do fonts come from? Monotype, mostly</title><url>https://thehustle.co/where-do-fonts-come-from/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gorgoiler</author><text>How come these old typefaces like Helvetica and Gill Sans not in the public domain?  The article mentions Helvetica being rolled in with one of Monotype’s purchases yet Helvetica is from the 1940s?&lt;p&gt;Hard copies of Shakespeare have individual copyright because of their unique prefaces.  Are these typefaces in copyright still because of the individual numerical descriptions being the work under protection, rather than the actual shape?&lt;p&gt;Is it something similar to
How X’s recording of Bach’s Y concerto with The Z Ensemble is in copyright, but the musical score itself is in the public domain?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>asmor</author><text>Because you&amp;#x27;re not buying Helvetica, but a digital variant of it. It&amp;#x27;s like a performance of classical music. Also Helvetica specifically is from 1957, so it may not in the public domain yet (depending on location).&lt;p&gt;There are actually several variants all named Helvetica, which is why it&amp;#x27;s a really bad font to put into your CSS font stack if you&amp;#x27;re not delivering it yourself. Newer variants tend to use other names (e.g. Neue Haas Grotesk).</text></comment>