[TUHS] troff was not so widely usable (was: The UNIX Command Language (1976))

[Toby Thain]

On 2021-02-10 10:02 p.m., Steve Nickolas wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Feb 2021, Richard Salz wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 9:04 PM George Michaelson <ggm at algebras.org> wrote:
>>
>> Not sure of that, but there are other techniques to protect it, like
>> patent, trademark, and trade secret.  Just like unpublished proprietary
>> source code of AT&T, to coin a phrase.
> 
> I think you can't copyright the shapes, but you can copyright the
> vectors that generate them because they're technically code.
> 
> Something weird like that.
> 
> But that's how you can have all those knockoff fonts Bitstream did, and
> why a font like Book Antiqua was possible under US law.

Added irony and lesson: Bitstream's digitisations and originals were
markedly better and more complete than Adobe's, who were able to use the
licensed names.

--T

> 
> -uso.