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user-inactivated · 3496 days ago · link · · parent · post: Tolkien estate exercises copyright on the "font" Tengwar, which was made by Tolkien but is a functioning system of language
Tengwar isn't a font, it's a writing system. It's a bit like saying that Sanskrit or Katakana is a font. In this particular case, the Tolkien estate is asserting copyright over these specific fonts made for Tengwar, but doing so as part of a larger belief that they also own the whole writing system. When an institution declares "ownership" of a specific part of culture and wishes to control it, problems inevitably arise.