PDF 문서에 사용된 폰트의 저작권에 대한 고찰

In a few years, some font manufacturers and law firms send a warning letter to users or request settlement money as excuse to sue while arguing the copyright for their typography was infringed and these cases have increased rapidly. Recently, There is controversy about whether the act of creating a document on the computer and then, converting it into PDF and posting it on the internet infringed the copyright for the font file. This leads to whether determining the use range of the font in usage permission agreement in the form of agreement is valid as the copyright agreement. The problem is that when allowing the use of a font file which is the computer program, the use act of posting on the internet can be restricted by copyright. Due to the form of dual protection that a font file is protected as a computer program work but the font itself is not the subject of copyright protection, whether the copyright of the font was infringed is often placed difficult to be determined. However, PDF documents are only products where a computer program, font is used and although some font files are reproduced in font embedded PDF documents, posting the documents on the internet is difficult to be regarded as copyright infringement as a useful use action in copyright law. Although font is copied in PDF documents or transmission may take place indirectly by posting the documents on the internet, it is reasonable to regard it as permitted as fair use and the effect should be considered to be denied by contract terms regulation act even if specified in the contract. Specifying even the available range of products in the usage permission agreement of a font file will be difficult to be protected by copyright law.