CompuServe Thread

Considering that you have to alter the fonts to bring them into windows, and altering, recompiling, etc. is not only a violation of the licensing agreeme nt but also a copyright infringement. I really don't think it's ridiculous. The normal licensing fee for the set that's on the CD is almost $200,000. I gave them to Gary for free so that 3DS users could have the benefit of using them. I didn't put them into the public domain. They are specifically designed for 3DS, and since 3DS doesn't use any of the misc. info that DTP programs do, there was no reason to include the data. By compiling the fonts without the data, they not only render faster in 3DS, they are more efficient all the way around. As long as 3DS users use them in 3DS, they won't have any problems, if someone alters them, then they do so at their own risk. Plain and simply, they are not DTP fonts, trying to use them as such is like trying to shove a square peg in a round hole. You may be able to do it, but there's a pretty good chance you're either going to screw up the hole or muck up the peg. In case I haven't mentioned it, I absolutely hate people who screw around with other peoples code. Running my fonts through a rip-off program like those that exists on the market today, is no different than running dongle-removal software on 3DS, or giving your next door neighbor a copy of an unprotected game you've purchased. To optimize the code in those fonts took well over 3 years of work, and I gave it to you and all of the other 3DS users to help with logos, titling, etc. I've seen my stuff on BBS' where people have uploaded them! I've seen people with $195 animation programs who have never owned 3DS using my type sets to make logos and steal work right out from under 3DS users! What a waste!!!! The possitive side of all of it, is that I'm just finishing up a two year long port of all of my stuff to the SGI platform. There everything is encrypted for specific machines and when I release a type set that took 6 or 7 months to create, I don't have to worry about some high school student copying it and distributing it to the world. End Of Rant, Paul

Well Alan it's not a claim, it's a fact that was pointed out to me by several individuals who tried to do it, and ended up having to re-lowlevel their drives. Basically what happens is that since they lack kerning,leading, hinting,etc. when a program like Microsoft Word tries to use them, it ends up running the characters on top of each other. This causes extreme errors under windows and crashes the program. When windows runs into these types of problems it does something really bizarre with the memory and files that are being accessed and causes multiple lost clusters, etc. Seemingly the reason this happens is because it is simultaneously screwing up the GUI WYSIWIG functions and internal page formatting. Whatever it does, it tends to work in such a manner that the lost clusters become unrecoverable and bad sectors appear on the hard disk. The sectors that are marked bad are done in such a way that a normal NDD or DISKFIX doesn't clear them up and reallocate the space. Hence the need for a low-level on the drive. Also since Word, Pagemaker etc. seem to be extremely vunerable to these types of errors, you generally have to perform a reinstall to fix problems in the program after such a crash. I believe the problems are further enhanced by the fact that most windows based dtp and word processing programs utilize Adobe type manager to interact with postscript fonts and in so doing, when a problem arises, it not only affects the dtp program but also affects ATM and the core windows code. The "problem" has been documented by Microsoft and they responded the same way that I did and the folks from most of the font translation programs did. " If a person is illegally altering or translating copyrighted code without the permission of the author and without the integral knowledge of how the technology works then they have to deal with the problems, legal and otherwise that arise from their piracy." The PFB's included with 3DS do not carry a "Microsoft Windows Ready" sticker and are constructed in such a way that they plain and simply will not load in Windows without the end user altering the code, and attaching additional files ala pfms. Therefore the end user will never face any type of problems with any of their equipment as long as they leave the code in its original form. If they alter the code, then they are: a.) Committing a federal crime b.) Voiding any type of implied warranty c.) Directly responsible for the damages that may arise from their actions. As to legitimate software, the second that you take any commercial software and start running it through translation programs, dongle breakers, code crackers, etc. You risk the same type of problems. If you do it, you're committing a felony, and quite honestly you deserve what you get. I'm not an Adesk employee and I never made any claim to that fact. I did design, create, and compile each one of those fonts in question, and wasn't trying to scare you, I was simply trying to be helpful. The fonts are copyrighted to me and I tend to do the tech support for anyone running into any type of difficulty with them. When someone pops up and says, " How do I go about disreagrding the copyright on this code and altering it so that I can use it for a purpose with which it was never designed" Then I try to not only point out that their asking advice on how to commit a federal crime, but that the particular thing that they're about to try has caused people harm in the past. As a final point of interest, the fonts were not specifically designed with that "failsafe" in them. I never even knew that it would occur until a few people tried it. After several reports we did test the circumstances in house and verified the results multiple times. I could change the code so that the particular problem wouldn't occur, but it would slow down 3DS' access to the code and not do anything possitive for 3DS to balance out the negative affects, so I really don't see it happening in the future. I'm sorry you feel so negatively about all of this. For the record my name is Paul Edward Lind IV, I use Paul L. just because I like people to call me by my first name. If you hang out on the forum, then you no doubt know that Gary Yost simply uses "G" and a number of other people use all sorts of handles. It's not like I'm signing my name Darth Vader or something. I've been on the forum for many years and since my font sets are also in Animator Pro, I try to pop in and help whenever someone asks about fonts. Autodesk asked me to do that several years ago and most of the time they'll simply defer the questions to me. I've been designing type for close to 15 years and I tend to be fairly knowledgable about the various formats and specs related to them. If I can answer any further questions please feel free to ask. Thanks, Paul