Ownership Of Font Styles?

jesse.k asks: "I'm curious about the copyright ownership of typefaces, specifically homemade copies of commercial faces. I've seen a great deal of fonts made to look like popular movie logos (Bladerunner, Fight Club, Star Wars, The Matrix), and I was wondering what is the legality of this? If one creates a similar looking font from scratch, does this fall under fair use? If one decides to distribute the font, what type of legal issues would it face, even if it is distributed in non-profit manner? I ask this, because even respectable free font archives on the Internet always seem to have at least a couple derivative fonts."