Webfonts.info Forums

When we talk about webfonts, protecting the font files is usually the biggest concern.
But when I look at the developments of digital documents, I wonder if font protection has a future at all.
Future documents will be more open than today. Adobe develops its Mars format, Microsoft has XPS. Both don't/can't have a real protection for the included fonts. They just "obfuscate" the fonts using a simple algorithm, that can be easily reversed. And this is the way it has to be in such an open specification.

So isn't it enough to "obfuscate" webfonts in some way or do we really need a DRM system?

Ralf

I think DRM is more trouble than it's worth. Of course easy for me to say, as I don't make money off of digital content But seriously, I think there are plenty of clever innovations that will keep things easy and manageable for consumers, while still allowing content owners to prevent egregious piracy.

I really like the idea of web-licensed fonts that are a subset of the characters of the commercial font. Kudos to fonts.info for helping lead the way with Graublau sans:
http://www.fonts.info/info/press/free-f ... edding.htm

Watermarking embedded fonts is another possible technique. It doesn't prevent piracy, but allows you to track the source of the violation. A few high-profile cases where violators are exposed and brought to justice would help.

And of course I'll plug my idea of having a font directory service on the web. If there was wide adoption of such a thing, it would be a bottleneck where access could be prevented to pirated content, and even could turn into a licensing/DRM play.

Watermarking doesn't work for webfonts, because the fonts end up on thousands of computers, who visit the website with the embedded font. A watermark would only tell you from which website the font was stolen, but that doesn't help you find the one who did it and it's not the fault of the client who licensed the font for that website.

Watermarking may be helpful to the extent that allowed URLs (URL binding) could be encoded into a font name table entry (license field maybe) that would informally tie the raw font to the web site or page that references...

"This font is licensed for use with content hosted at the following domain/s: www.webfonts.info - linking to this font from other domains prohibited."