sIFR, Cufon and @font-face licenses

Edit: Sorry for the misspelling in the title. For future reference, the titles here don’t support the ó character.

Hey everyone, I thought I would take a second to clarify some of the license restrictions when using custom fonts in sIFR, Cufón, @font-face, etc.

1) If there isn’t a clear license available, you need to contact the author of the font and get explicit permission to use the font in the way you intend.

2) If you plan on using the font in a template here at Theme Forest, you need to request explicit permission to use the font in a commercially redistributed website template and clarify with the author whether or not you can include the font in the download files or if your buyers will need to download the font themselves via a provided link in the documentation sources.

3) If you convert the font to be used with Cufón and you include the font javascript file, that is essentially the same as including the font itself. If the font license doesn’t allow for redistribution, don’t include it in any way in the download files. Contact the author and get permission to do so first.

4) Include a copy of the license with the font files and in your template documentation (or a link). This makes it much easier for the reviewers to check it and will take less time to review your files.

5) Telling us that another author has used the “free font” you want to use and that you should be able to use it too does not mean you can use the “free font”. The other author may have obtained explicit permission directly from the font author or something else. If one author obtains explicit permission from the author, that applies only to that author. Everyone else will need to do the same thing until the font author provides a new public license.

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All in all, if you aren’t sure, just get permission from the author anyway. Using fonts in some situations can be a grey area, especially if we aren’t familiar with the license or if the license isn’t very clear. To speed things up, getting explicit permission from the font author (and providing proof) removes your situation from the grey area zone.

If you guys have any questions, please ask. That way if we don’t know the answer, we can find out and speed up the process later.

And avoid to lose time and money.

Well said, Jarel. If you’d like, you can write a more extensive blog posting that goes over this in more detail.

Well said, Jarel. If you’d like, you can write a more extensive blog posting that goes over this in more detail.

A blog post will be very helpful

Well said, Jarel. If you’d like, you can write a more extensive blog posting that goes over this in more detail.

Sounds good. I’m trying to get a couple others finished up and then I’ll write this one.