Digital Typefaces

I couldn't resist following the post on Wordle with my own slightly self-serving post on digital typefaces.  I am currently working on a draft article on IP protection for digital typefaces and have posted a draft on SSRN.  (It's actually not the most current draft and I'm happy to send the most current version to anyone who desperately wants a copy.)  But interestingly, this draft has received the best and most diverse response online to anything I've ever posted before – and even more interestingly, the response has been largely from members of the digital typeface design industry themselves.  When I was doing the original version of the paper, it was difficult to find any literature about the industry, particularly in terms of how market participants perceive the legal rules applying to their work.  But in recent weeks, my attention has been drawn to a number of online blogs (such as Typophile) and online marketplaces such as Font Bureau, MyFonts, FontSpace, FontMarketplace etc where designers license their wares and discuss their approaches to design, and to the law.  I figured that anyone playing around with Wordle might be interested in visiting some of these cites and experimenting with some of the digital fonts that are out there in cyberspace.  And I want to thank all the digital designers who are helping (and have helped) me with my draft article in recent weeks.