How can I commercially use a font with a copyright but no licensing information?
<p>I found a free TTF font from <a href="http://freakfonts.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">freakfonts.com</a>. When I look in its properties, it shows a copyright by Southern Software, Inc. from 1995.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/dz42w.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/dz42w.png" alt="screenshot of font&#39;s Properties window"></a></p>

<ol>
<li><p>Am I allowed to use this font commercially? If not, how do I obtain a license to do so? (Ideally I would like to use this font in my product designs and sell the resulting products)</p></li>
<li><p>Am I allowed to use this font personally? (eg for decorative purposes or to make gifts?)</p></li>
</ol>

<hr>

<h2>Notes:</h2>

<p>I found a <a href="https://www.southernsoftware.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Southern Software, Inc.</a> online, but they don't seem to be the kind of company to develop fonts (though looks can be deceiving!).</p>

<p>Since the font had "SSK" in its name, I looked up "SSK" online and found <a href="https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.fonts/bOkvutFp6B8/umKcgpEv4kwJ" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this person</a> who says it's a reference to the company SoftKey, which has gone through multiple acquisitions and ownership transfers based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftKey" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this Wikipedia article</a>.</p>

<p>Any font file you find is protected by copyright. It is possible that the font is publically licensed, and equally possible that it isn't and the owner of the copyright actively hunts down offenders and sues them. There is no effective way to know who the copyright owner is. But, copyright law does not include an exception that you can copy a font if you don't know who the copyright owner is. Instead, the burden is on you to find out, and get permission to legally use the font (download, install or otherwise utilize a font). Otherwise, copying protected material without the permission of the owner of the copyright, whether commercially or non-commercially, is copyright infringement.</p>

<p>You could read about the case of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Systems,_Inc._v._Southern_Software,_Inc." rel="nofollow noreferrer">Adobe Systems v. Southern Software</a> and decide whether this is the font in question, but it looks like the copyright may be held by Adobe Systems. </p>

copyright licensing