You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a television. You wouldn’t steal a DVD.
You would steal a… font?!
An amazingly ironic claim has been made about the most famous piracy ad of all time, alleging that it used a pirated font itself.
The advert is well known after being played before the film every time people went to the cinema in the early 2000s, and later rolling out to DVDs too.
Made in 2004, it’s now in the spotlight again 21 years later after a user on Bluesky analysed the font used in campaign material and saw it was not the official version.
While the typeface appears to be the licensed font FF Confidential, it’s allegedly an identical bootlegged version called Xband-Rough.
User Rib.gay on Bluesky wrote: ‘By using FontForge on a PDF from the website for the campaign, I can confirm that they are indeed using the illegal clone version of the font, rather than the licensed one!’
It is understood that the making of the ad predates those currently working at FACT (the Federation Against Copyright Theft), the UK-based organisation involved with its production.
While some jurisdictions do not allow fonts to be copyrighted, in the UK typefaces are protected under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 which considers them artistic works.
Metro put the claim to FACT (the Federation Against Copyright Theft), the UK-based organisation involved in making the ad, and they declined to comment.
At the time the advert was made, the pirated version of the font was widely circulating, so there is no suggestion that those who made the ad intentionally used an unofficial version.
It is also possible that the video itself used the licensed font, even if campaign leaflets about it did not; analysing the video is more difficult than simple text.
But it illustrates how prevalent bootleg content was at the time, and rather undermines the central premise of the advert which equated watching a downloaded film with burgling someone’s house.
The ad became a meme and was even parodied in the IT Crowd, who memorably made a version whereby film piracy was compared to shooting a policeman dead, defecating in his helment, sending the soiled helmet to his widow, and then stealing it again.
If you try to visit the original URL of the ad, you’ll actually be redirected to that parody clip.
The creator of the original font, Just Van Rossum, told Torrent Freak: ‘I knew my font was used for the campaign and that a pirated clone named XBand-Rough existed.
‘I did not know that the campaign used XBand-Rough and not FF Confidential, though. So this fact is new to me, and I find it hilarious.’
But he said he no longer has the rights to the font and will not be pursuing the matter.
If you do want to use it legally, it’s currently licensed by Monotype and is available on MyFonts for £59.99.
The Motion Picture Association and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, which also collaborated to make the ad, have been contacted for comment.
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