3D Studio FONTS
You need to realize you're talking about two entirely seperate
things. A.) If you're actually changing the design of a font to the
level that the font is totally different from the original then you
are considered to be creating a new font.
B.) If you simply use a program like Fontmonger to translate a font to
a different format then you are breaking the licensing agreement of
the manufacturer, you are simultaneously removing the copyright of
the font code and replacing it with ARES Software's copyright notice
and you are breaking software laws inacted by the United States
Supreme Court. Not to mention that screwy programs like FontMonger
absolutely destroy the integrity of a font. They have some half butt
hinting scheme that totally destroys the original designs.
Also the response of "this isn't what the original designers intended"
is exactly my point. The software was designed for a specific purpose
and sold for a specific purpose. When you alter the code, you're
breaking the law. Not necessarily harmful, but not extremely Kosher.
Programs using interpretation to read data from specific
characters(i.e.-3D Studio) is 100% different than converting an
entire set of characters at one time and simulataneously altering the
font manufacturer's copyright notice.
Beyond that …there isn't much to say…. it's legal for Ares to sell
the software, it's illegal for the end user to convert most fonts.
Alot of people do it, it definately isn't a great thing to do.
Paul
P.S. – There are no font wars, True Type has specific advantages that
Postscript doesn't have and Vice Versa. The two technologies overlap
to a certain extent, but both have extremely specific areas in which
they excel. The so-called font wars is a term that laymen use because
they don't understand the actual font technologies.