Who is fontpeople.co.uk

Martin Wenzel

Hi, I was wondering what/who https://fontpeople.co.uk is. They’ve recently purchased licenses for fonts from us and claim to be a type foundry “with access to almost every font in the world”. I’m suspicious of such claims but might be misunderstanding something here.

Florian Hardwig

From their profile at MyFonts:

FontPeople was founded in 2019 by Jason Harcombe after 10 years in the type industry working for various foundries providing custom and library fonts to some the largest brands in the world.

Harcombe is TDi 2018 graduate at the University of Reading. In 2017, he was appointed UK Sales Director by URW.

One of the custom fonts shown on their website is Ryman Eco, which was designed by Dan Rhatigan and Gunnar Vilhjálmsson, according to the font info.

Martin Wenzel

Hi @Florian Hardwig , thanks for the insights. I did found some of the information as well but mainly wondered what the “access to almost every font in the world” combined with him purchasing some of our fonts could mean. In short: should we be concerned?

JoyceKetterer

I've dealt Jason a bit.  I even had an argument with him on twitter about whether he has the right to resell fonts under a European doctrine that permits the original purchaser of software to sell their purchase second hand.  That's a tangent I can explain if anyone wants but suffice to say he's engaging in some bad logic to justify a unethical (and likely illegal) practice. 

They are providing a service of license management.  This would actually be a good thing for both buy and sell side if it was being done by an intelligent person acting in good faith.  I think he's probably mostly in good faith but not thinking very deeply and therefore doing things that are as negative as if he was in bad faith.  The URW and Monotype pedigree is mostly supporting evidence for that theory.

So far as I can tell all orders are for clients.  I've seen orders come in under the FontPeople name and challenged him on it since we expressly require that resellers must provide their client's name and that the client is the licensee.  When pressed he claimed it was an "autofill error" and provided the client's information. The next order was done correctly.  That said, I'm heard from others that they had the same experience and so suspect this is an intentional pattern.

My strategy so far has been to engage with him in a patient but stern manner.  Not knowing better isn't an excuse.  If he's gonna present himself as an expert I'm going to judge him by that standard.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Very insightful.

BTW, I wasn't sure Europe allows SW resale. I thought that maybe the US did too? FWIW I'm all for it myself, and see ethical problems with preventing it. BUT: it has to be done transparently, versus this apparent sleight-of-hand.

Martin Wenzel

Thank you @JoyceKetterer for your insights. I’ll be writing an email then.

(Our license states: You are […] granted a non-exclusive, non-assignable, non-transferable […] license.)

JoyceKetterer

@MartinPlus the law he's sighting would override your terms and permit transfer if it is being properly applied.  I contend that he's not interpreting it correctly.  Regardless, the argument to make is that he's making a purchase at the behest a of a client who is the intended end user and therefore you need to issue the license to them.  When I said that he didn't argue on its face - simply apologised for an "autofill error" and gave me the customer info.

JoyceKetterer

@Hrant H. Papazian I'm for it in the case of all software that has the ability to push EULA agreement in installation and limit installs via a serial number.  it is only because fonts can't that I'm against it.

George Thomas

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jasonharcombe

Jason Harcombe

Hi everyone.  Thanks for the comments and enquiries.  Should anybody have any direct questions please do email me on jason@fontpeople.co.uk 

Jason Harcombe

Adam Jagosz

@Harcombe10 This is a real names forum.

Jason Harcombe

Adam Jagosz said:

@Harcombe10 This is a real names forum.

So real names are a must but absolutely no issue with people making false accusations of illegal activity?  Makes perfect sense.

Jason Harcombe

@Adam Jagosz Furthermore why was my account ratified if that was the case? 

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Jason Harcombe said:
absolutely no issue with people making false accusations of illegal activity?

Let people express their sincere beliefs, free of censorship. Open communication will make the cookie crumble to the greatest societal benefit in the long term.

Jason Harcombe

Hrant H. Papazian said:

Jason Harcombe said:
absolutely no issue with people making false accusations of illegal activity?

Let people express their sincere beliefs, free of censorship. Open communication will make the cookie crumble to the greatest societal benefit in the long term.

Sure; free speech isn’t in question here as much as making frivolous and unfounded accusations. They’re not the same thing.

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

Jason Harcombe said:
Sure; free speech isn’t in question here as much as making frivolous and unfounded accusations. They’re not the same thing.

To me, as long as it's sincere, censorship ends up harming society. Manipulation, different story. But I've never witnessed Joyce for one do that.

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)

I have a couple of customers like that. However, they usually insist that the client's name be stated on my invoice. I expect that's to their benefit if questions on the client's end ever arise. 

Jason Harcombe

Hrant H. Papazian said:

Jason Harcombe said:
Sure; free speech isn’t in question here as much as making frivolous and unfounded accusations. They’re not the same thing.

To me, as long as it's sincere, censorship ends up harming society. Manipulation, different story. But I've never witnessed Joyce for one do that.

So if it was sincere but manufactured I could say about you whatever I liked?

Jason Harcombe

@JoyceKetterer has entirely manufactured that we did anything or have ever done anything illegal, then subsequently emailed me stating I should “beg her” to be my mentor, whilst we are in full disclosure mode.

Jess McCarty

Jason Harcombe said:

@Adam Jagosz Furthermore why was my account ratified if that was the case? 

Hi Jason, I'm a moderator and admin of TypeDrawers. Real names are required, as is outlined in the TypeDrawers Rules, linked at the top of the main TypeDrawers forum.

To everyone in this discussion thread: this is a reminder to keep things on-topic. TypeDrawers is a forum for the discussion of type and lettering, not each other. (And especially not personal attacks.)

Because discussion has veered so far from the original post, this thread is being locked.