> than what are all this online web-font services like typekit about?
Good question. They are maintaining the fiction that the font can be copyrighted and hope that everyone plays along. Keep in mind the font file itself is copyrighted because font files are actually little computer programs.
> are you saying that i can download any font, edit its metadata, maybe add 1 point to every character and freely use it?
Probably not, that's not a sufficient change of the file. What you can do is display the rendered font on your screen, then exactly copy it using a font editor. You will loose hinting this way though (the program embedded in the font to make the hints is copyrighted, the specific hints at each size is not), so there is some extra work you will need to do to replicate the hinting.
Good question. They are maintaining the fiction that the font can be copyrighted and hope that everyone plays along. Keep in mind the font file itself is copyrighted because font files are actually little computer programs.
> are you saying that i can download any font, edit its metadata, maybe add 1 point to every character and freely use it?
Probably not, that's not a sufficient change of the file. What you can do is display the rendered font on your screen, then exactly copy it using a font editor. You will loose hinting this way though (the program embedded in the font to make the hints is copyrighted, the specific hints at each size is not), so there is some extra work you will need to do to replicate the hinting.