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The infamous anti-DVD-piracy PSA turns out to have used a "pirated" font. That's deliciously ironic, but is it the most ironic case of font piracy of all time? Let's unpack a few cases from the long shared history of type design and piracy and find out.

Thanks to ‪@JacobGeller‬ and ‪@MedlifeCrisis‬ for lending their voices!
Sources and Links:
https://www.notion.so/timesnewboman/A...

After the video was published, type designer Nick Sherman added further nuance and recommended readings on Mastodon – https://typo.social/@nicksherman/1145...

Also worth reading - a great thread getting into the finer details of fonts and copyright by Rutherford Craze: https://typo.social/@mass_driver/1146...

00:00 You wouldn't steal an iconic grunge font
01:00 The original font: FF Confidential
02:14 The pirate font: XBand Rough
02:56 Can a font even be copyrighted? It's complicated.
05:10 Grand Theft Typo, a.k.a. the Bitstream Heist
08:58 CD-ROM: The original slop era
11:24 Pirates of Lead (but in Latin for extra pretentiousness)
13:06 Type Crimes... History Rhymes
18:49 Commerce and design can never be separated