The Copyright Office, Library of Congress

“ The Office therefore concludes that, if copyright protection for the master computer program alone is not adequate to encourage creativity in the field of computer-assisted typeface design, any broader protection, if appropriate, should be legislated by Congress rather than established by administrative decision-making. Congress is the appropriate forum for debating the concerns that infect the question of legal protection for typeface designs or digitized representations of typefaces. ”

“ Proponents of registration argued that the data representing a digitized typeface should be copyrightable because, after the initial rendering of the letterform into electronic digital form, there is selection, coordination, or arrangement of data/instructions in order to generate an acceptable, final typeface image. ”

“ This finding applies both to the initial scanning of the letterforms and to the subsequent refining of the typeface by "curving," "connect-the-dots," and other techniques. The data created is an electronic depiction of the typeface. In fact, there are fewer authorship choices involved in transforming an existing analog typeface to an electronic font than in using the digitization process to create a new typeface design. Yet clearly the typeface design and the process of creating it are uncopyrightable whether the process is digital or analog. ”

“ The digital image, it maintains, can be represented in different computer languages using different techniques. This comment also states that no distinction is drawn at the machine language level between data and instructions. In general purpose programming languages, the surface separation between data and algorithms is for the ease of human programmers. ”

“ This comment advocates that, in any event, the "work" is protectible as a program, compilation or separately as a literary work. Another comment claims protection for the edited, compiled set of instructions and data as a literary work. The second comment espousing rule of doubt would limit the registration to the typeface database.
Several comments state that not all typeface programs and databases are protectible. Purely mechanical translations from analog to digitized typefaces, they acknowledge, are not copyrightible. ”

“ Another comment states that programs to generate typeface design can be written in various languages and for many different machines with distinct programs. Typeface programs, it is argued, are original and creative and should be protected. ”

“ When decoded and interpreted, by the "bitmapping code" software, the digital representation of the design will reproduce the appropriate character. "Bitmapping" refers to the technology that allows control of individual pixels on a display screen to produce graphic elements of superior resolution, permitting accurate reproduction of arcs. ”