Steal This Font? Campaign's Anti-Piracy Message Uses Pirated Typeface

A well-known anti-piracy advertisement has faced criticism following reports that the font utilized in the campaign was actually stolen.

The exaggerated advertisement seemed nearly impossible to avoid during the early 2000s, showing up on DVDs and video cassettes as well as being screened in movie theaters.

The crime-thriller styled video displays messages like "You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag" set against a loud musical score.

It continues with the cautionary message 'Piracy. It's a crime 'aimed at instilling dread in viewers, making them reconsider duplicating the information onto their personal disc or cassette.'

Yet, in a stunning turn of events reminiscent of scenes from blockbuster films, social media users uncovered that the font had been stolen from Just Van Rossum. Dutch typeface designer.

In 1992, Van Rossum developed his FF Confidential typeface. According to reports from The Times, this design was subsequently illicitly replicated and issued under the name XBand-Rough.

Although this font was available at no cost, businesses had to pay for using Rossum's initial design.

A Bluesky user uploaded an image from the 'You Wouldn’t Steal a Car' campaign into an online tool designed to identify fonts precisely.

The user found out that the pirated version of XBand-Rough was utilized instead of Rossum's genuine product.

It is improbable that the creators behind the advertising campaign were conscious of their use of a pirated font since it wasn’t widely known that the XBand-Rough font they utilized was actually an unauthorized replica.

It's equally plausible that the advertisements utilized a licensed version of the font, which was paid for.

The font’s initial designer Just Van Rossum informed the technology news site TorrentFreak that he considered the news 'extremely amusing.'

He informed the website that he was uncertain about the licensing of his font and whether the duplicated version had been utilized for the campaign.

He stated, "I was aware that my font was utilized for the campaign and that a pirated version called XBand-Rough was around. However, I didn’t realize the campaign employed XBand-Rough instead of FF Confidential. This information is news to me, and frankly, it’s quite amusing."

Previously, reports suggested that the music used for the famous alert was stolen. Nevertheless, these claims were shown to be incorrect.

The advertisement was halted in 2009, five years following its initial release. However, it has persisted in various collections for numerous years thereafter.

The segments were swapped out for advertisements promoting British cinema along with messages appreciating the audience’s support of films.

MailOnline reached out to the organizations responsible for the advertisements: the UK’s anti-piracy body FACT, the American Motion Picture Association, and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore.