You Wouldn’t Steal a Font? The Delicious Irony of the Anti-Piracy Ad

We’re hitting pause on the pixels for a moment. What follows has absolutely nothing to do with gaming, but trust us, the sheer hilarity demanded to be shared. Enjoy the brief escape from our regularly scheduled programming!

Remember the early 2000s? The internet was a wilder place, Napster was a household name (for better or worse), and the earnest, often unintentionally hilarious, “You wouldn’t steal a car” anti-piracy campaign was in full swing. That shaky-cam footage, the escalating comparisons of digital downloads to grand theft auto – it’s etched into the collective memory of anyone who was online back then.

And who could forget the tagline that launched a thousand memes: “You wouldn’t download a car”? The campaign, in its dramatic fashion, aimed to equate pirating Shrek 2 with serious criminal offenses, warning of inevitable legal repercussions.

While the original ads themselves had a relatively short lifespan, their impact on internet culture is undeniable. From The IT Crowd‘s brilliant parody to its enduring presence in online humor, the “you wouldn’t download a…” format has become a timeless way to mock overly dramatic pronouncements.

But hold onto your hats, folks, because the irony dial has just been cranked up to eleven. In a twist so delicious it’s almost unbelievable, it appears this very anti-piracy campaign may have inadvertently used an illegally cloned font. Yes, you read that right.

The distinctive, slightly distressed font used in the infamous ad bears a striking resemblance to FF Confidential, a typeface created by the talented Just van Rossum back in 1992. However, there’s another font floating around called XBand Rough that looks virtually identical. When journalist Melissa Lewis inquired about this uncanny similarity, van Rossum himself identified XBand Rough as an “illegal clone” of his original work.

Now, buckle up for the punchline. A sharp-eyed Bluesky user named Rib decided to do some digital digging. Using the FontForge tool on a PDF file from the old anti-piracy campaign, accessible through the Wayback Machine, they made a startling discovery: the embedded font in the campaign’s materials is not the legitimate FF Confidential, but the alleged “illegal clone,” XBand Rough.

Of course, it’s important to acknowledge that this isn’t definitive proof of some nefarious intent. It’s entirely plausible that the graphic designers working on the campaign were unaware that the font they used was a knockoff. Perhaps they acquired it innocently, none the wiser to its questionable origins.

However, the sheer, unadulterated irony of a staunch anti-piracy initiative potentially utilizing an unlicensed font is simply too good to ignore. It’s the kind of cosmic joke the internet was practically invented for.

Thankfully, Just van Rossum, the creator of the original FF Confidential font that the campaign didn’t use, seems to find the whole situation rather amusing.

“I knew my font was used for the campaign and that a pirated clone named XBand Rough existed,” van Rossum told TorrentFreak. “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.” He also confirmed he has no plans to pursue any legal action.

So, the next time you stumble upon a “You wouldn’t steal a…” meme, take a moment to appreciate the wonderfully absurd possibility that the very campaign designed to deter digital theft might have inadvertently engaged in a little intellectual property infringement of its own. It’s a reminder that irony truly is the spice of life – and sometimes, the internet delivers it in the most unexpected and hilarious ways.