Steal This Font? Anti-Piracy Slogan Snags Stolen 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, popping up on DVDs and video cassettes as well as in movie theaters.

The crime-thriller styled video displays messages like 'You wouldn't steal a car, you wouldn't steal a handbag,' complemented by loud background music.

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 tape. '

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.

Van Rossum developed his FF Confidential typeface in 1992. According to The Times, it was subsequently illicitly duplicated 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 submitted an image from the 'You Wouldn’t Steal a Car' campaign to an online tool that identifies specific fonts, and the software was able to pinpoint the typeface used.

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

It is improbable that the people behind the advertising campaign knew about their typeface being stolen, since it wasn’t widely known that the XBand-Rough font was actually an illicit reproduction.

It could be that the advertisements featured a licensed version of the font, which was likely purchased.

The font’s initial designer, Just Van Rossum, informed a technology news site TorrentFreak that he thought the news was 'hilarious'.

He informed the website that he was uncertain about whether his font had proper licensing or if the copied version was 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 know the campaign opted for 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. Nonetheless, these claims were shown to be untrue.

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

The clips were swapped out for advertisements endorsing British cinema and expressing gratitude towards viewers for their support of films.

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

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