Intellectual Property on Fonts and PS Brushes

Q

QQworld

Member
2 things I've been wondering lately and haven't been able to find an answer on:

- I know that fonts are sold for up to hundreds of dollars. If you don't pay that sum (no matter how large or small), can you still use that font or is that grounds for a lawsuit by the font owner?

- PS Brushes seem like a tiny relative of the fonts question. Obviously some custom brushes take a long time to make and can produce some really cool effects. Is it OK to use brushes?
 
Why tempt fate? Either buy the font or brush you want or find a free similar one on the internet. I've gotten a bunch of interesting brushes off google searches or 3d sites like 3dcommune or renderosity. Fonts I also download from free font sites I find on google.
 
Using anything without permission or license is grounds for a lawsuit. Any font or brush you download is likely to come with a readme file indicating what the terms of use are. Realistically, you can probably get away with whatever you want. But I've seen some people get caught ripping off others, and it's not pretty.
 
Well that's the thing, namely, because using "anything" is not grounds for a lawsuit like you say.

Many fonts don't have readmes, and many fonts on the Internet you simply have no idea whether they're someone's IP or not. I've found some free fonts on some sites, and then the "owner" charging a fee for them on another site.

Same thing when it comes to brushes. I download someone's cool PS tutorial which includes a neat brush. Is that legit? Is it not?

I'm asking because I do not think the answer is as trivial as "Never Do It, It Is Always Bad."
 
Cryogenic Filmworks said:
Why tempt fate? Either buy the font or brush you want or find a free similar one on the internet. I've gotten a bunch of interesting brushes off google searches or 3d sites like 3dcommune or renderosity. Fonts I also download from free font sites I find on google.
Click to expand...


This is what I do. There are so many fonts that are almost exact copies of others out there, that if you need a font and it has to be purchased to use, odds are someone has made something similar for free. Just use the free one. Unless you line them up one directly on top of the other, you usually can't see the difference.



QQworld said:
Well that's the thing, namely, because using "anything" is not grounds for a lawsuit like you say.

Many fonts don't have readmes, and many fonts on the Internet you simply have no idea whether they're someone's IP or not. I've found some free fonts on some sites, and then the "owner" charging a fee for them on another site.

Same thing when it comes to brushes. I download someone's cool PS tutorial which includes a neat brush. Is that legit? Is it not?

I'm asking because I do not think the answer is as trivial as "Never Do It, It Is Always Bad."
Click to expand...


Firstly, I'de try to find and contact the person who made it. Then I would try to find if it is part of a pack being sold. If I couldn't do either, I'de use it. My experience so far has been if someone has something of enough importance to sell, they will make damn sure their name is associated with it somehow. And if someone has a custom brush that you get from a site that does NOT have the author's name listed and you use it, the fault is the site's not yours, because they are the ones who provided it.

Also, we are talking about brushes and fonts here. Not photgraphy, video, sound, or music, things much more identifiable, and much harder to replicate/alter for the sake of illegal use. So I think you would be ok. Just try and find info about the creators, and if you can't, them use them.
 
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