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
    261·
    2 days 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
      3·
      2 days 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.