As far as I know, when you buy software (OS, design, games) most if not all, come with certain fonts and you are free to use those fonts.

I am going to ignore the fact that paying hundreds of dollars to buy a single font that was actually a derivative of another font that was made 500 years ago is completely ok and not highway robbery.

I recently found out about companies that “license” fonts, the same fonts that billions of humans use on their devices.

Who made these companies the authority on fonts, and allows them to ‘license’ fonts. I thought if I purchased a font, then as long as I don’t distribute it or sell or copy it, then I’m ok.

And the fact that there are multiple companies doing this, to me, it makes it sound even more fishy. Since it’s like having multiple record companies licensing one song that they didn’t even create or own. Why are there annual fees???

Can someone please clear this up for me. This is in no way an attack on any person or community, however, I do want to say that if I had to take sides, I’d be on the side of the artists/designers.

Topics: design, licensing, creative commons, copyright, typography, typefaces