Rib Apr 23, 2025
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 (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 (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!
Melissa Lewis (@melissa.news)

TIL: The 2000s piracy PSA used a font designed by the fantastic Just van Rossum, whose brother Guido created the Python programming language. https://fontsinuse.com/uses/67480/piracy-it-s-a-crime-psa

Bluesky Social
Show threadBohwaZApr 23, 2025

@Rib
Not sure if the xband font was a clone as it's slightly different and it was made by Catapult Entertainment in 1996 for the XBAND service. It was an online gaming service for the SNES and the Megadrive. The company was bought by MPath Interactive in 1996. Just found that on Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBAND

MPath was bought by GameSpy which was bought by glu mobile which was bought by Electronic Arts in 2021. Which probably has the rights on this font now.

XBAND - Wikipedia

Show threadRib 
@bohwaz other than the name of the font I can't find any evidence that they are linked; promotional material for the XBAND doesn't seem to use it anywhere
Apr 23, 2025 at 6:26pmWeb
Show threadBohwaZApr 23, 2025
@Rib It's actually in the font file itself, it says "1996 Catapult Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved". This is the name of the company who did XBAND, I don't know if it was used anywhere, but at least it's pretty clear it was designed for XBAND :)
Show threadRib Apr 23, 2025
@bohwaz FF Confidential seems to date to 1992, so it seems Catapult Interactive cloned it: web.archive.org/web/20110703075658/https://www.fontfont.com/fonts/confidential
FontFont : FF Confidential

FontFont — The world’s largest library of original contemporary typefaces.

Show threadBohwaZApr 23, 2025

@Rib Ah yes didn't see that lowercase and uppercase letters yielded different results. Both fonts are identical as far as I can tell, you are right.

So BREIN pirated a pirated font :)

Show threadpescoApr 24, 2025

@Rib @bohwaz
you can see it used in the images on this page. their logo uses a similar typewriter-style font that is cleaner (less "damage" to the glyphs) which explains the name: it is the "rough" version of their title font.

Now as for being a (seemingly) exact clone of FF Confidential, that is not *necessarily* illegal. Glyph shapes in and of themselves are not protected by copyright AFAIU. So it could be that Catapult Entertainment comissioned a clone and just got a very good one. One would have to dig into the font files directly to find out if it was an actual illegal copy.

https://web.archive.org/web/19970414154540/http://www.xband.com:80/XBAND/products/

XBAND Products!

Show threadBohwaZApr 24, 2025
@pesco @Rib When you compare the glyphs one by one they are the same.
Show threadpescoApr 24, 2025
@bohwaz i assume you mean the shapes. as I wrote, they are not the issue. the copyrightable bit is the "font software" that produces them. I.e. line and curve drawing operations of the PostScript, TrueType, OpenType or whatever file.