Rib :ms_red_panda: (@Rib)
fedi.rib.gay
Today Melissa Lewis over on BlueSky pointed out that the font used in the infamous "You wouldn't steal a car" anti-piracy campaign was actually designed by Just van Rossum, whose brother, Guido, created the Python programming language (https://bsky.app/profile/melissa.news/post/3ln7hx5rhcj2v) She also pointed out that the font had been cloned and released illegally for free under the name "XBAND Rough". Naturally, it would be hilarious if the anti-piracy campaign actually turned out to have used this pirated font, so I went sleuthing and quickly found a PDF from the campaign site with the font embedded (https://web.archive.org/web/20051223202935/http://www.piracyisacrime.com:80/press/pdfs/150605_8PP_brochure.pdf). So I chucked it into FontForge and yep, turns out the campaign used a pirated font the entire time! 📎
  • jqubed@lemmy.worldEnglish
    48·
    6 hours ago

    Fun fact: the shapes of the letters in a font can’t be copyrighted, but the file that defines a font can. The name could be trademarked, though, so even if you redrew a font you might have to give it a different name. If it’s not trademarked, though, that’s how you end up with several companies having their own version of the same font.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      4 hours ago

      Is that the same for all countries though or are you talking about a specific place where that‘s the case? I don‘t know much about the subject but this reads like one of those US specific fun facts that the rest of us can‘t really make use of.

      • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        55 minutes ago

        In the thread it looks like in the US you can’t copyright the shapes, but in the UK, you can for 25 years. Also the .ttf file that contains the code to make the font render correctly at low DPI is copyrightable in the US.

  • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    4 hours ago

    Typical.

    Especially when that ad was released, nobody considered piracy a crime seriously then.

    Those making the ad could probably be thinking like: something business-made, with workhours put into it, shouldn’t be pirated, that’s theft, but something made by enthusiasts can, it’s taking what doesn’t have an owner, just toys in the Internet, and also GPL is dishonest for having rules, it’s cheating and poison, it’s ownerless too, only companies doing business should be able to sue for IP violations.