linus-boman 16 hours ago
Linus Boman #Dee Dee Design

Linus Boman | The Secret History of Font Piracy

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.


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