Let me add some reference information. All these issue started from this web page and there is a English version of web page available by an extra one-click.
http://khdd.net/kanou/fonts/stolenbitmap.html Also this site has some reference to the previous Japanese case: "Compensation was granted for the dead copy of fonts". It was followed by that this decision was based on "unfair competition prevention law". Also there has been some discussion on legality of converting bitmap to vector in Japan. Following thread may be interesting (if you can read.) http://lists.debian.or.jp/debian-devel/200211/msg00038.html (This thread was totally inconclusive discussion.) In there, I find quote by Kinoshita-san (roughly translated): Japanese sensitivity of bitmap fonts comes from fact that Japanese characters presented in relatively high resolution bit map fonts are quite distinguishable between different design. So "design patent" was some concern. Japan does not have this "design patent" but England, France, Germany, Swiss, Canada, and Hong Kong have protection of "Type face" itself mostly through copyright. US provides protection through design patent. This is a message stated by "Japan Typography association" who seems to have special interests to give legal rights to the proprietary typeface. Their web site http://typo.or.jp/index.html (Japanese) Osamu PS: I think I was UN-subscribed from this list sometime ago when I had connection problem.
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