EnviroLink Forum

I've started developing an environmentalist homepage here:

http://fecowebs.ourproject.org

During development, I've met with some legal questions, for example, I realized that it is not sure that I can use "deep linking". Now there is another legal question: can I put there a PDF file and share it as public domain?

At first, we might think yes. But if there's a font incorporated in the PDF file, and if that font is not public domain, I guess the PDF file cannot be in the public domain (otherwise the font could be extracted from it as public domain). Fortunately, I read that the PDF file format has some standard fonts which are not incorporated in the PDF file - I will probably use one of them or I will create a public domain font (which I want to do anyway).

But I'm still uncertain if I can share a PDF file as public domain: the PDF file format specification is not free (although licensed freely), and it is not clear to me whether a PDF file can be public domain while the PDF file specification is patented.

Can you show me free online lawyers, or legal texts which help environmentalists or my special case?

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Environmentalism: http://fecowebs.ourproject.org
Justice: by ballpoint pen.

I would suggest reading about "open source" and "copy left" and what they do to stay free of copyright infringement. They likely have libraries of fonts and document formats that are free of copyright concerns (but may be subject to "copy left"... kind of like a protection from anybody trying to copyright the material in the future).

I'm sorry, but I will use HTML on the web instead of PDF. The fonts in the PDF are really an issue (PDF just don't include fonts in the PDF if they belong to the standard 14 postscript type 1 fonts, but if I export PDF with OpenOffice, I haven't got those fonts - Times is not the same as Times New Roman).

I also don't like that it is patented. But I might spread my PDF file in email or print (with my fonts, of course).

_________________
Environmentalism: http://fecowebs.ourproject.org
Justice: by ballpoint pen.