Install a copyright protected font

[Carolyn]

Hello, I am new here. I am in trouble now. If I mistakenly used a copyright protected font to make some pictures and uploaded them to Facebook, would this be an infringement to the law? If it was, how would the law judge this case?

[AndyJ]

Hi Carolyn,
Assuming that you live in the UK, using a font, whether it is protected by copyright or not, is not infringement. This may seem counter-intuitive, but copyright only protects against someone who, without permission, copies the actual movable type which comprises a font. Obviously that refers to the old days of letterpress printing, but the law has not been changed to accommodate a different regime for so-called soft fonts (ie typefaces created graphically on electronic devices). Here's what the law says:

54 Use of typeface in ordinary course of printing.

(1) It is not an infringement of copyright in an artistic work consisting of the design of a typeface—

• (a) to use the typeface in the ordinary course of typing, composing text, typesetting or printing,
  
  (b) to possess an article for the purpose of such use, or
  
  (c) to do anything in relation to material produced by such use;

and this is so notwithstanding that an article is used which is an infringing copy of the work.

Section 54 Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988