united-states software licensing germany open-source-software
Why can you use the font “Helvetica” for free in LaTeX although it would otherwise be required to pay a fee?
<p>When looking for the Helvetica font, it usually costs you a certain amount of money because it is <strong>not</strong> a free font. But when I am using the free open source software LaTeX, I can use the font wherever I want. But I cannot, for example, use it when writing documents in Word or OpenOffice.</p>

<p>Why is that? What kind of “special deal” or treatment is this?</p>

<p>Font <em>shapes</em> are not legally protected, whereas font <em>names</em> are. As such, one can make copies of fonts and give them new names. Helvetica is one of the 'base' fonts included in PostScript printers. This made having a 'desktop' version very desirable. Some years ago, the font foundry URW made their Helvetic clone (Nimbus Sans) available under an open license. This allowed the font files to be included in open source software distributions, including LaTeX set ups, with no fee or legal restrictions. Subsequently, these font files have been used as the basis for the 'TeX Gyre' fonts: see <a href="http://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/tex-gyre" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/tex-gyre</a> for the fonts and <a href="https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb27-2/tb87hagen-gyre.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb27-2/tb87hagen-gyre.pdf</a> for background.</p>

<p>The TeX Gyre fonts are available in OpenType format, and so can be used with (for example) OpenOffice (technically and legally). Note that these fonts are 'metric compatible' with the 'parents', <em>i.e.</em> they can be used directly as replacements for Helvetica, <em>etc.</em> with no change to the appearance of documents.</p>

<h1>My assumption is it just falls back on Helvetica <em>only</em> when using an Apple computer or computer with Helvetica already installed. This is what happens with web fonts that use Helvetica.</h1>
<p>From what I'm reading it doesn't use Helvetica at all, it uses Nimbus Sans which is just very very very similar to helvetica but its not identical.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb27-2/tb87hagen-gyre.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> link it says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>• Nimbus Sans (i.e., Helvetica)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Which I'm pretty sure just means it's a replacement for Helvetica.</p>
<h1>As far as the law is concerned...</h1>
<p>In the USA it's hard to say. I can give a few examples here for you to research.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>URW++ was involved in a 1995 lawsuit with Monotype Corporation for
cloning their fonts and naming them with a name starting with the same
three letters. As typeface shapes themselves cannot be copyrighted in
the United States, the lawsuit centered on trademark infringement. A
US court decided that Monotype's trademarks were &quot;fanciful&quot; and did
not have descriptive value of the actual products. However it also
decided that URW was confusing the public deliberately because &quot;the
purloining of the first part of a well-known trademark and the
appending of it to a worthless suffix is a method of trademark
poaching long condemned by the courts.&quot; The court issued an injunction
preventing URW from using their chosen names.[15]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I'm not a lawyer but I can site this case. To explain why <strong>&quot;Font shapes are not legally protected,&quot;</strong> might not be the correct answer.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A legal precedent was set in the case of Adobe Systems, Inc. v.
Southern Software, Inc. (SSI).[12] SSI had used the FontMonger program
to copy and rename fonts from Adobe and others.[12] They assumed
safety from prosecution because, though they had directly copied the
points that define the shapes from Adobe's fonts, they had made slight
adjustments to all the points so they were not technically
identical.[12] Nevertheless, it was determined that the computer code
had been copied.[12][16]</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces</a></p>
<p>and also take a look at</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimbus_Sans" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimbus_Sans</a></p>
