Will I have copyright problems with Microsoft if I add Microsoft YaHei Bold Font in my commercial webpage? (using CSS3)

Question

Will I have copyright problems with Microsoft if I add the @font-face CSS3 property in my commercial webpage with the font: "Microsoft YaHei Bold" (The Cleartype Chinese font for Windows Vista).?

Answer 1

It looks like it's better to be careful:

From Microsoft Typography - Font Redistribution FAQ

Q. What can I do with the fonts supplied with Microsoft products?

A. The fonts are governed by the same restrictions as the products they are supplied with. You are not allowed to copy, redistribute or reverse engineer the font files. For full details see the license agreement supplied with the product.

There is the option of "embedding" fonts:

Q. Can I embed Microsoft fonts in my documents?

A. Embedding allows fonts to travel with documents. Most fonts distributed with Microsoft products allow embedding. To check a font's embedding permissions, right-click on the font file and choose 'Properties'.

I strongly doubt distributing them as font-face is seen as embedding them into the document, because the font resource is downloaded in full, as a separate entity. I would still check with MS first, especially if you have any kind of notable exposure (big company etc.).