logo
Famous anti-piracy campaign ‘used pirated font'

Famous anti-piracy campaign ‘used pirated font'

Independent29-04-2025

A famous anti- piracy campaign from the early 2000s which became a part of pop culture history may have itself have been the product of piracy.
Social media users have discovered the font used for the dramatic 'You wouldn't steal a car' advert was pirated from a typeface created by designer Just van Rossum.
The campaign compared pirating films to stealing items such as handbags and televisions and regularly appeared in cinemas and on DVDs, with dramatic music playing in the background.
The thriller-style advert ended with the warning 'Piracy. It's a crime'.
One Bluesky user extracted the fonts used in one of the campaign's old PDFs and made the discovery that it was actually a pirated version of Mr van Rossum's licensed font FF Confidential.
Sky News reports that there was no evidence to suggest that the campaign's designers were aware that the font was pirated.
At the time, Mr van Rossum's font had been illegally cloned and re-released as the font XBand-Rough, which was widely shared and free to use.
"I had known about the 'illegal clone' of my font before, but I didn't know that that was the one used in the campaign,' Mr van Rossum told Sky News.
"The campaign has always had the wrong tone, which (to me) explains the level of fun that has been had at its expense. The irony of it having used a pirated font is just precious.'
After first appearing in 2004, the advert was discontinued in 2009 but has remained on cassettes and DVDs in people's collection.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Northern Ireland town is engulfed in racist riots for a third day
Northern Ireland town is engulfed in racist riots for a third day

NBC News

time5 hours ago

  • NBC News

Northern Ireland town is engulfed in racist riots for a third day

LONDON — Dozens of mostly young men torched homes and smashed in windows in a Northern Irish town late Wednesday, in a third night of what officials described as coordinated 'racist thuggery' against the community's ethnic minorities. Some residents of Ballymena, about 25 miles northwest of Belfast with a population of 30,000, responded to the anti-foreigner vigilantism by sticking the Union Jack or signs in their windows reading 'British household' and 'locals live here,' in an apparent attempt to be spared by the rioters. NBC News' British partner Sky News has seen residents from ethnic minorities packing up suitcases and leaving their homes, while others have spoken of their terror that the mob violence will continue. The violence first flared Monday during a vigil for a teenage girl who was the victim of an alleged sexual assault two days before. Two teenage boys, both 14, were charged with attempted rape and appeared in court Monday, communicating through a Romanian translator. The boys' identities have not been released because of their age. Masked rioters broke away from the otherwise peaceful vigil, building barricades and throwing bricks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at houses and police. Riot police responded with rubber bullets and a water cannon. More than 40 officers have been injured over the three nights, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, known as the PSNI, said. The violence also spread to other towns in Northern Ireland, such as Coleraine, where a bus station was attacked, access to the train station was blocked and rioters pushed trash cans onto the rails and set them alight Wednesday night, police said. In Larne, some people whose homes were destroyed were given shelter at a leisure center — until that was targeted and set on fire, too. In total, 10 people, all men in their teens, 20s and 30s, have been arrested. Three of them, aged 18, 17 and 15, have been charged and are set to appear in court Thursday. 'This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,' Ryan Henderson, PSNI assistant chief constable, said Tuesday at a news conference. 'It was racist thuggery pure and simple and any attempt to justify and explain it as something else is misplaced.' A Bulgarian national who lives in Ballymena and asked that her identity be protected told Sky News, 'It's terrifying, honestly, I'm scared to get out of the house,' She said she had been in Northern Ireland 'for a while — I've pursued an education here,' she said. 'I've done multiple things for the community and it's just absolutely heartbreaking that it's not the same Ballymena that I had when I first came here.' "It is important," said Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think tank that focuses on immigration, identity and integration, "to draw the clearest red line between the legitimate debate about immigration policy, including numbers, the pace of change and the quality of integration, and hateful abuse and threats." 'Governments need to manage asylum much better nationally and locally,' he said, 'but must challenge more forcefully those stoking hatred and socializing violence against migrants, and the platforms that let hatred run riot without impediment.' Northern Ireland is no stranger to unrest, but usually between 'unionists' — mostly Protestants who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom — and 'republicans' — mostly Catholics who want it to become part of the Irish Republic. Though this conflict, called 'the Troubles,' officially ended with a peace deal in 1998, sporadic clashes still break out between these often segregated communities and police. This week's unrest in Ballymena follows a different trend, however. Anti-foreigner sentiment has in recent years surged across the U.K. and indeed Europe and the West. As prices for food, fuel and housing rise due to inflation, and public services become squeezed, some politicians mainly on the populist hard-right have sought to blame mass immigration for putting undue stress on the system. Pro-immigration progressives argue that immigrants provide an essential net benefit to society, both bringing high-level skills and filling less glamorous but necessary jobs. Last summer, anti-immigrant violence flared across the U.K. after three young girls were stabbed to death at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in the town of Southport in northwest England.

Prince William was given a rare telling off by the Queen during balcony appearance
Prince William was given a rare telling off by the Queen during balcony appearance

Edinburgh Live

time10 hours ago

  • Edinburgh Live

Prince William was given a rare telling off by the Queen during balcony appearance

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Trooping the Colour is fast approaching, and preparations are underway at Buckingham Palace to mark the King's official birthday. During this pivotal event in the Royal calendar, the Royal Family gathers on the iconic balcony of Buckingham Palace to witness the Royal Air Force flypast. Whilst this spectacle usually stands as a highlight, past celebrations have not always gone without a hitch for the royals. Cast your mind back to 2016, when an unexpected incident led to the late Queen 'scolding' one Royal family member during the festivities. Prince William found himself in hot water with his grandmother during the balcony appearance, receiving a stern rebuke from the monarch. READ MORE - Kate Middleton's stern pep talk to 'disappointed' Prince Louis during event READ MORE - Simon Cowell 'very worried' about son Eric as he admits 'things are changing' The scene unfolded as Princess Charlotte celebrated her inaugural Trooping the Colour appearance post-first birthday, held by Kate, while Prince William tended to young Prince George. Prince George, three years old at the time, was leaning over the balcony edge, waving enthusiastically to the sea of well-wishers below. In a moment of fatherly guidance about the flypast, William momentarily kneeled out of the public's view, reports the Mirror. The Queen, evidently disapproving of the break in Royal decorum where William was hidden from sight, seemed to chastise her grandson with a firm directive: "stand up William. Don't crouch." Prince William dutifully followed Her Majesty's command, promptly standing and appearing somewhat embarrassed by the interaction. During a fly past, the Queen was seen delivering a stern reprimand to her grandson, but this wasn't the first time she's had to be firm with him, as Prince William recalled in a Sky News documentary celebrating the Queen's 90th birthday in 2016. Back then, the future king opened up about a childhood mishap involving himself and his cousin Peter Philips at Balmoral, having ridden a quad bike errantly whilst chasing Zara on a go-kart. He recounted: "We were chasing Zara around who was on a go-kart, and Peter and I managed to herd Zara into a lamppost and the lamppost came down and nearly squashed her." William vividly remembered the Queen hastily responding, vividly describing how: "I remember my grandmother being the first person out at Balmoral running across the lawn in her kilt. She came charging over and gave us the most almighty b******ing, and that sort of stuck in my mind from that moment on." From a young age, Prince William has been part of Trooping the Colour, making his first balcony appearance for the event before his even turned one year old back in 1984. Then, as a newlywed in 2011, William made his debut in the parade itself, riding on horseback—an experience he is expected to repeat this year. Traditionally taking place annually in June, Trooping the Colour has celebrated the monarch's official birthday since King George IV ascended the throne in 1820, only suspended during the world wars and a national strike in 1955. In 2020, due to the Covid pandemic, a much-condensed version of the festivities took place at Windsor Castle. The 2025 Trooping the Colour, formally recognised as The King's Birthday Parade, is scheduled for Saturday, 14 June, in London.

Twitch streamer breaks down in laughter trying to promote MindsEye
Twitch streamer breaks down in laughter trying to promote MindsEye

Metro

time11 hours ago

  • Metro

Twitch streamer breaks down in laughter trying to promote MindsEye

Even paid Twitch streamers are struggling to promote MindsEye thanks to its rough performance. Some say that any publicity is good publicity, but games like MindsEye prove that isn't the case. It's pre-launch period already gave off odd vibes, with the co-CEO of developer Build A Rocket Boy insinuating that someone had paid for all the negative previews MindsEye had received. Now, the game is officially out and to say its launch has been troubled would be an understatement. It's quickly become the new punching bag for gamers, thanks to numerous bugs and glitches. We'd compare it to Cyberpunk 2077's launch, but at least that game worked on PC. Even the sponsored livestreams of MindsEye are doing more to hurt the game's image than help it, which has led to Build A Rocket Boy cancelling many of them. In a clip shared to Bluesky, streamer CohhCarnage, who has an audience of over 1.6 million on Twitch, revealed he had to cancel a sponsored MindsEye stream shortly before it began. 'My sponsored stream was supposed to start at 8, I opened up MindsEye, and as it was loading, my management contacted me and said, 'The sponsor does not want to do this right now. It would like to reschedule,'''' explained Cohh Carnage, pointing out that this has never happened before in his entire streaming career. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The internet is filled with other live reactions that do MindsEye no favours. In one clip shared to the MindsEye subreddit, DarkViperAU couldn't help but break down laughing at the end of his stream, despite being paid to promote the game, as he tried to inform his viewers where they could buy it. In a video on MindsEye's launch by MoistCr1TiKaL, he shares a clip from a stream by Sodapoppin (who has at least nine million Twitch followers) where the game kept crashing, forcing the streamer to read off talking points while he tried to fix it. Ironically, all this negative buzz could encourage sales of MindsEye, since some people will want to experience the game first hand, as it becomes a hit with streamers and their audiences. In a Reddit post, Build A Rocket Boy promised that a hotfix to address performance will arrive for PC by the end of the week and for consoles 'as soon as possible.' Build A Rocket Boy has ambitious long-term plans for MindsEye, as it's meant to incorporate a creation tool that lets you build your own mods and missions. The game's roadmap also promises new quests, multiplayer, and a Hitman crossover. More Trending A redemption arc for MindsEye certainly isn't impossible. Cyberpunk 2077 demonstrated that it's possible to salvage a game's reputation after an incredibly mess launch. However, that not only took years of work, but Cyberpunk 2077 had the benefit of incredibly strong launch sales and a workable PC version that showed the game could be great. Sales for MindsEye haven't been shared yet but while it lacks any formal reviews from outlets (due to no review codes being sent out), word of mouth from players suggests the game wouldn't be that good even if it did work as intended. Nobody should want a game to fail, but it's difficult to be optimistic about MindsEye's chances. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: GTA producer's new game Everywhere looks like Roblox for adults MORE: Hitman 3 review – mission mostly accomplished MORE: Cyberpunk 2077 performance on base PS4 and Xbox One S is already a meme factory

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store