Staying Legal: The Challenges of Font License ComplianceWHITE PAPER

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Font Licensing is a Serious Issue

Virtually all graphics workfl ows include fonts, but very few organizations do an adequate job tracking

font usage throughout their enterprise. Some organizations can’t even determine which fonts reside

on their users’ machines, much less how and when they are being used. Unfortunately, this inability to

track font licenses and usage is a ticking time bomb.

Font licensing is a serious issue. In 2009 NBC was sued by Font Bureau alleging that the broadcaster

did not secure suffi cient rights for fonts used in several advertising campaigns for their programs.

Font Bureau claims that in some instances NBC paid for one copy of the fonts and then copied them to

many computers, and in another case, the fonts were not licensed at all. Font Bureau is demanding two

million dollars for the infraction.

In January 2010 a design fi rm created a logo using an unlicensed font for Hadopi, a French government

agency that regulates Internet access. This resulted in embarrassment for the fi rm and the government

agency and necessitated an immediate logo redesign. The designer of the typeface is considering

legal action.

In 2006 the Business Software Alliance, an organization that educates people about software piracy

and enforces software licenses, performed an audit of Campden Publishing. The audit revealed that

Campden was using in excess of 10,000 diff erent, unlicensed fonts worth more than $100,000. A storm

of negative publicity rained down on Campden, and it was required to buy the fonts at once.

These are only a few examples of what can happen when organizations fail to comply closely with font

license agreements. The consequences are varied, but they are never good and usually cause severe and

costly disruptions to your business, workfl ow, customer relationships and public image.

Understand Font License Terms Before You Purchase

Fonts are software and their use is subject to restrictions that are common in other software licenses.

When you “purchase” a font, you do not “own” it; just as in a software application, you are allowed to

use the font as long as you comply with the font vendors’ licensing terms. Violating the terms of font

licenses is a serious off ense subject to fi nancial penalties and legal consequences.

First, you need to be aware of the terms of your licenses. Font vendors include diff erent terms and

conditions in their license agreements. For example, Adobe Systems allows for the subset embedding

of fonts in pdf documents, but Emigre only permits this if you distribute the pdf fi le to people and

organizations that have also licensed the fonts unless your contract with them provides otherwise.

To ensure your compliance with font licensing terms, you need to implement policies and systems so

your organization purchases only fonts whose license terms are consistent with your project workfl ows.

For this reason, before purchasing a font, you should always examine the terms of its license and

make sure you can comply with its restrictions. Sometimes, you can license the same font from several

vendors, making it easier to fi nd a vendor with licensing terms consistent with your needs.

Software vendors and industry

associations are moving aggressively

to protect their interests and enforce

font license agreements

Fonts are software and you must

implement policies and systems

that enforce compliance with their

licensing terms

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Many “Free” Fonts Have License Restrictions

Many sites on the Web off er so-called “free” fonts. If you examine their license terms closely, you’ll often

fi nd that many of these fonts are free for personal use, but require you to purchase a license if you use

the fonts for commercial purposes.

Sometimes the license terms of these “free” fonts are very vague, and can even be a bit impractical.

For example, one small foundry has a license that says their font is free for personal use, but if you want

to use the font for commercial purposes, you must send the foundry copies of documents in which

the font is used, and then pay the foundry a fair-charge amount for the use. Very few commercial

organizations could use such a font under those license terms; the legal fees required to review each

use would dwarf the font license fees.

As with traditional commercial fonts, it is imperative that you understand the licensing terms of “free”

fonts before you use them. Another warning that clearly applies is the age-old rule of thumb of caveat

emptor, or let the buyer beware.

Make Sure Your Current Fonts Are in Compliance

Unless you have been carefully monitoring and enforcing font license compliance in your organization,

chances are your font collection isn’t “yours.” It is likely to be a mix of:

• Legally licensed fonts that could easily be installed on more devices than you have licensed

• Fonts introduced to your workfl ow by designers who selected them for a project

• Fonts licensed for one purpose, but used for an unlicensed purpose

• Fonts added by freelancers without notifying you that they have done so

• Fonts legally purchased by single users, but that have spread across the organization

• Free fonts that people have downloaded off the Internet

• Fonts introduced and copied among machines because users thought they had the right to do so

• Fonts created specially for one customer and subsequently used by others without authorization

It is likely that your collection is populated with “rogue” fonts that were installed without authorization

on your organizations’ computers. This commonly occurs when freelance designers assisting on projects

bring their own font collection—which may or may not be properly licensed—into your organization

to create their designs. When freelancers leave, most leave their fonts behind. The fonts live on in your

workfl ow and spread throughout your organization, leaving you wide open to legal action.

In short, your entire current font collection might need to be evaluated for license compliance. If you

do not have a documented purchase record for fonts you are using, chances are those fonts are being

used illegally, and you are subject to fi nancial and legal penalties if you are audited for font or software

license compliance.

Understand the license terms of “free”

fonts before you use them; many

require you to purchase licenses for

commercial use

Unless you have been carefully

enforcing font license compliance,

chances are that your organization is

using fonts illegally

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Get Control of Your Fonts with FontAgent Pro

If you’re not tracking font usage in your organization, there is no better time to start than now. The

fi nancial and legal exposure is simply too great.

Insider Software off ers an industry-leading line of font management tools to help you in your quest

for font license compliance. If you want to centrally control and distribute fonts to Macintosh and

Windows users across your organization, you should be using FontAgent® Pro Server. It tracks license

and purchase information for your fonts and alerts you of violations when you exceed your number of

authorized licenses.

In addition, FontAgent Pro™ Server enables administrators to assign privileges to users and groups who

are best suited to perform specifi c tasks and limit distribution of fonts to only those who need them. It

is a quick and eff ective way to make sure you are in compliance with your license agreements and more

easily manage your valuable font assets.

FontAgent Pro Server also tracks not only who receives fonts, but who activates them as well. This lets

administrators know if users aren’t activating specifi c fonts so admins can redistribute them to other

users who can make better use of them.

To stop unauthorized fonts from being distributed across their organizations, administrators can

grant granular permissions that allow specifi c users to administer the font server, to upload fonts or

to distribute fonts to users. For example, an administrator could give rights for a graphics department

manager to create sets and add users to their group, but not the right to upload or remove fonts from

the server, thus giving that graphics manager power to organize fonts for their group, and still protect

the fonts stored on the server.

Insider’s FontAgent Pro client software for Mac and Windows workstations provides complete font

management that integrates diagnostics, repair, font selection, font book creation, and design tools

in a powerful, yet simple application for creative and business professionals. It also allows you to lock

end-user systems so users cannot add or remove fonts, preventing “rogue” or unauthorized fonts from

entering project workfl ows.

To further prevent users from circumventing enterprise font-management policies, Insider off ers Get

the Font Out™, an application that stops users from adding fonts to Macintosh system folders.

A font audit is never fun. Even if you can ultimately prove that you have been in compliance with

license agreements, the time and eff ort expended in demonstrating that fact can be staggering. This is

because in a software audit, there is no presumption of your innocence. But with FontAgent Pro Server,

you can provide evidence of compliance by just printing a simple report from the server’s constantly-

maintained font usage log.

The FontAgent Pro product line helps

you manage and control your font

assets while enforcing font license

compliance across your organization

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For Software Trials and More Information

For more information on how Insider can help you with enforcing license compliance and your

other font management challenges, or for a free 30-day trial of Insider products, please visit

www.insidersoftware.com or contact us.

Insider Software, Inc.1-866-366-8778 US and Canada

+1-520-229-1212 International

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