*** From the Archives ***
This article is from March 29, 2002, and is no longer current.
dot-font: A Font Pirate Is Brought to Justice
dot-font was a collection of short articles written by editor and typographer John D. Barry (the former editor and publisher of the typographic journal U&lc) for CreativePro. If you’d like to read more from this series, click here.
Eventually, John gathered a selection of these articles into two books, dot-font: Talking About Design and dot-font: Talking About Fonts, which are available free to download here. You can find more from John at his website, https://johndberry.com.
One of the most notorious font pirates has been captured on the high seas, hauled in irons to the King’s port town, and hanged on the scaffold in front of the cheering populace.
Well, no. That’s not how it works. Font pirates are not fabulous scallywags, cruising the sealanes in search of golden serifs, forcing corporate minions to walk the plank, and flying the Jolly Roger in the face of civilization. Font pirates might better be known as font burglars, or font thieves.
Ah, but that conjures up yet another romantic vision. International font thieves! Simultaneously italic and bold, they switch suavely from evening dress to the all-black garb of the cat burglar. Starring David Niven and Gig Young. I can see it now: the glittering cocktail party for the exotic princess, the fabulous rare fonts dangling from her neck, and the plot to steal them after midnight from the locked safe in her boudoir.
But no. It’s really a lot more sordid and petty than that. Font piracy just means stealing someone else’s work, which they’re trying to sell, and giving it away to all and sundry—or slapping your own name on it and selling it yourself. It’s robbery, and there’s nothing glamorous or Robin-Hood-like about it.
Information Wants to Be Stolen
The Hoefler Type Foundry recently sent out a press release, their first, addressed to “dear friends and colleagues,” announcing a legal settlement with “a font pirate who we’ve been pursuing for some time, in concert with Emigre, House Industries, FontShop and others.” As Jonathan Hoefler aptly put it in his accompanying e-mail, “None of us enjoyed this process. It was time consuming, unbelievably expensive, and just generally wretched.”
Hoefler summed up the process: “In 1999, someone nicknamed ‘Apostrophe’ hijacked all of our font libraries and posted them to a number of online forums. (Some of you receiving this e-mail are the very people for whom I created many of these faces.) Through an unprecedented sharing of resources, eleven type foundries cooperated to investigate and prosecute this matter; three years later, I’m happy to announce that we’ve finally settled with the malefactor.”
No one likes to play the heavy, but as Hoefler says, “We’re pleased to have demonstrated that anyone discovered pirating fonts in any capacity will be held accountable to the entire industry.”
The foundries involved in the lawsuit were the Hoefler Type Foundry Inc., Emigre Inc., Active Images, FSI Fonts und Software GmbH, International Type Founders, Inc., Jeffery C. Gillen d.b.a. Mindcandy, Rodrigo Cavazos d.b.a. Psy/Ops, and Treacyfaces Inc., representing the typeface designs of more than 40 typeface designers; Linotype and House Industries supported the suit. Most of those are small companies, some very small, and the designers who created the typefaces routinely devote an absurd amount of time, effort, and talent to the task of type design, only to reap pretty meager rewards even when everyone who uses their fonts pays for them. The days when large amounts of money could be made in the type business are long gone.
But It Grows on Trees
It’s very easy to steal fonts; all you have to do is copy them. Technically, if you copy a licensed font and give it to a friend to use, you’re in violation of the license agreement and are stealing that font. If your friend would otherwise have bought the font, thus giving the manufacturer and ultimately the designer their pittance (and it is a pittance; have you looked at how low font prices are these days?), then you’ve prevented that paltry sum from reaching the hands of the person who deserves it. If your friend is going to use that font professionally, and get paid for designs that use that font, then it’s doubly reprehensible (though legally no different).
Type is a commodity today, available everywhere. Slews of fonts come as freebies with every computer and many software applications; those are legitimately licensed and ultimately paid for, but the fact that they’re free to the user devalues the sense that they’re really worth money. Each of those typefaces, if it’s any good, took many hours of careful work to develop; if it’s a text face, or an extended text family, it may well have taken months, or even years. (Every time you read a newspaper set in Times Roman, or a book set in Palatino, consider all the work and skill that went into making those letters work together so well on the page.)
Many users of digital fonts take a cavalier attitude toward them as intellectual property. Several years ago, a type designer in Russia explained the state of the type business there by saying that most users regarded type as a renewable resource. “Fonts grow on trees; when you pluck one off, another grows back in its place.” This is hardly unique to Russia (and despite this attitude, there is a type business in Russia today, and much creative design being done); the practice, and the attitude, obviously thrives on some usenet usergroups in the United States and elsewhere.
At the same time, a proprietor of one of the best-known type foundries told me that among professional graphic designers, there is usually no hesitation about buying the fonts. In any large studio or corporation, the cost of buying fonts is a trivial part of the budget, and in even tiny one- and two-person shops there’s an honorable attitude that “if we’re making money from this, then the type designer should be making money from it too.”
Honorable Behavior
There have been any number of schemes to prevent font piracy, from restrictions on embedding fonts in documents to elaborate digital registration systems to keep track of who sold what to whom. Some have even suggested devising “disposable fonts,” which could only be used a limited number of times before they self-destruct. (It would be like one of those disposable cameras that you use once and then throw away. With the cameras, what you keep is the film; with fonts, what you’d keep would be the design you used them to create.)
The best defense against font piracy, apart from the occasional costly lawsuit like the one against “Apostrophe,” is to spread the word, to keep explaining to type users that the fonts they copy onto their computers are someone’s intellectual and artistic work, and that the designer deserves some reward every time their work is put to use.
Choose your fonts wisely. A few good, well-designed typefaces will be more useful in the long run than a slew of cheap knock-offs. And pay for the fonts you use. For type designers, that’s the bottom line.
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Education *is* indeed the best way to reduce piracy, but
that’s why I was sad to see Berry not tell the whole story:
The truth is, Apostrophe has gone unpunished for his
actions, simply agreeing to stop the redistribution of
the fonts (which he had actually done a full year before
the lawsuit was even initiated anyway!). He didn’t end
up going to trial, paying a red cent to any font house,
or suffering any real consequences for his piracy. So,
in the end, the only people who really benefited from
this ordeal were the lawyers…
Education? Mr Berry, that’s exactly correct!
hhp
I think the pricing for fonts needs to be reconsidered. Most cost about $20 a face, so if I need only: Roman, Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic; that’s $100 bucks. $100 for a font that I may only use on one project or at best occasionally. It just doesn’t make economic sense. I spend less money on software programs that I use everyday.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anyone should steal fonts or that the high cost is justification to steal. All I’m saying is the high cost relative to use, prevents me from purchasing and using more fonts.
I would bet that if the purchase price of fonts went down, gross revenues would go way up.
Uh, what?
I agree roundly with artworx. Don’t you think the price just *might* be a factor in the proliferation of font piracy? Maybe the primary one?
Just look at how (and for how much) Hoefler sells their fonts. You can’t just buy Knockout #90, you have to get #90-94. That’s $169. Let’s say you want #90 and #68. You’ll have to fork over $338.
No self-respecting designer uses those $5 2000 font megapack CDs. They use high-quality foundry fonts.
So I guess I should ask, “have you looked at how low font prices are these days?”
There are twosides to everystory. See
https://www.hardcovermedia.com/lab/Pages/Misc/PRTHIS.htm
While you are there, check out the ever-growing library of font offerings (all high quality, all free) at “The L’ab.” Go to
https://www.hardcovermedia.com/lab/
and click on “Grab.”
As stated, there is always two sides to a problem, or disagreement, and I do suggest you get both sides before you casually attack someone with information recieved from one group.
How could someone ‘hijack’ a whole collection, when they already owned them. They posted them on newsgroups, yes, but that is not piracy, that is copyright breach. You should get your terms correct.
Piracy is theft, but he was giving away something he already owned but that IS NOT PIRACY !
The alleged newsletter only given out to affected, or interested parties, is a lie by Hoefler. It was posted on their site, and other foundries sites, openly for all to see. This is totally against the legally binding settlement agreement that they agreed to. So what does that make them.
You are actually breaking the law by writing this in such a manner as the defendant was supposed to have legal protection against harassment. You have breached that legal agreement.
Font piracy (the theft of fonts without payment) is something that I do not agree with, but I do not agree with the casual way you, and the foundries, are misleading the public regarding the true facts of the case.
I do feel an apology should be given, or at the very least a re-write of the article using the correct terms.
Hi. I don’t know who “Ge Em” is, aside from the General Motors corporation, but here are a couple of clarifications of his or her misleading points:
>How could someone ‘hijack’ a whole collection, when they already owned them?
Apostrophe does not own a license to any of my fonts. My studio is the sole distributor of my fonts, and we therefore have complete records of our licensees. Anyone who has the fonts and isn’t in our records, therefore, has pirated them.
>The alleged newsletter only given out to affected, or interested parties,
>is a lie by Hoefler. It was posted on their site, and other foundries
>sites, openly for all to see. This is totally against the legally binding
>settlement agreement that they agreed to… You are actually breaking the
>law by writing this in such a manner as the defendant was supposed to have
>legal protection against harassment.
None of Apostrophe’s rights in this matter have been compromised, and none of the terms of the settlement have been breached. If anyone’s interested in reading our press release, it’s online here: https://www.typography.com/press/pr_03_22_02.html.
Yes, true. And with links to it from many other sites, after you and emigre sent copies out to people. That is not settling with the umpires judgement.
As stated, I DO NOT support piracy, but this shove it in peoples faces attitude that you, Emigre, and the other foundries have adopted in regard to the outcome of the case in question seems to be misleading in the manner it is put forward. You have the right to gloat, pat your own backs, be proud, whatever, but not when the facts are skewed to impart incorrect information, and not when you, and others, are pushing this to be published extensively upon other sites that had nothing at all to do with the case. This is simply either ego stroking at the expense of the umpires decision, or a concerted effort on the part of a number of foundries to harass and publically humitiate someone, again at the expense of the umpires decision.
I state here, before you respond, that you legally and rightfully got the result you should have, but that should have been the end of it. The press release(s) as there have been more than one, should have stayed on your site. They did not.
I personally have found Commercial Font Foundries to be unreliable in regard to what they say and state, unreliable generally in the quality of service they provide, unfaithful in their dealings with the general public (once they have your money), overpriced and also double standards when it comes to piracy.
Please feel free to respond, but dont wait for me to reply, as am dropping membership to this site. I also point out that I made no effort to denigrate your name, yet you resorted to a remark about my initials. Thanks for bolstering my impression that foundries like yours DO NOT REALLY CARE.
Again, there was no “umpire’s judgment.” There was a settlement to which both parties agreed. In fact, as Apostrophe has pointed out on his own site, he wrote the settlement! This settlement entitled the foundries to send out press releases, so we sent out press releases. I really don’t see what the problem is.
I hope you’ll exempt me from the “commercial font foundries” with whom you’re unhappy, unless there’s something specific that I’ve done to upset you. My studio does its best to provide good service to our customers, and there’s no double standard in our feelings about piracy: we don’t like it. If you’ve had a bad experience with The Hoefler Type Foundry, I’d like to know about it — you can e-mail me personally at [email protected].
Regards,
Jonathan Hoefler
http://www.typography.com
4. The Plaintiffs may publicize on their respective websites that an Order has been obtained against the Internet alias “Apostrophe” for an undisclosed amount.
No mention of sending out posts here.
Have a nice day.
misleading, or misrepresenting again.
1. I did not rip off any fonts !
2. I personally have had fonts stolen from me by commercial foundries !
3. commercial foundries never seem to accuse other commercial foundries of piracy.
I just saw this URL:
https://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/lawsuit.html
I don’t know what Hoefler and his friends are so happy about. If I filed a 20 million dollar lawsuit and had to go home with nothing after spending so much money I would be very pissed and I would keep my mouth shut. Apostrophe seems quite open about the whole story so I don’t think he’s lying. The John Berry article on here is just Hoefler’s email spinned off. John Berry and his editors should have had enough sense to research their information before publishing it because now they look stupid, biased, and insincere about their reporting.
If what Apostrophe says is true, and I have no reason to believe it is not, those seven foundries have put their whole industry in deep ka ka. Seven of them combined against one guy had to accept nothing for their cost and efforts, and the usenet orgy still goes on. Hoefler’s fonts were uploaded on the mac fonts newsgroup just yesterday. Emigre’s fonts are uploaded there everyday. There’s a million Apostrophes but how many seven foundry coalitions are about to sue them and get nothing for it?
Wake the hell up Hoefler. You don’t like piracy? What did you do about it and what did you get for your efforts to stop it? A press release that someone else wrote for you? So sad.
Maybe I should get info on person who slandered me off in earlier post, supported by Hoefler, by stating that “You should not have ripped off the fonts”, in other words, accusing me of font piracy. I feel like a few extra million bucks would go down nicely, unless an apology is posted.
I do want to clarify two things from creativepro.com’s point of view.
1) Any regular reader of John D. Berry’s work knows that “dot-font” is an opinion column. It should be read as such.
2) If you re-read the column you see that the Hoefler release serves as a jumping off point for a larger dicussion of font piracy. Out of 15 paragraphs only 4 refer to the case in question.
Creativepro.com is a Web site for creative professionals. These are primarily people who are paid to produce creative work. We believe that those who do good work and who ask for money in exchange for that work should be compensated. That applies equally to type design and column writing or carpentry and cooking.
We also believe that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and the comments posted in this forum should be construed as just that — the opinion of the person who posted them.
Thanks,
Pamela Pfiffner, editor in chief
Irrespective of your post, you are legally required to supply me the information I requested regarding the poster called Gee Wiz.
I have asked for this information for my solicitor and you refuse.
A discussion consists of opposite views and disagreements, but to state outright I stole fonts from someone (in other words claiming I am a pirate of fonts/software) is pure slander and illegal in all forms across the internet. I am within my rights to demand the information regarding this individual, and you are protecting him by not supplying it.
I have emailed J. Hoefler and he was kindly apologetic for his support of this persons statement, but the person himself is being hidden and protected by the creativepro team.
I want that information.
Ge Em,
Per our email sign-up, we don’t require personal information other than a valid email address. We don’t even know who you are. The same is true for Ge Wiz. So if you want to contact us with your real info at an offline mailbox, we can talk then.
We are not protecting anyone. We simply don’t have the information.
Please send your personal information to: [email protected]
Pamela Pfiffner, editor in chief
While hoefler could reply and apologise, and creative pro contact me, why can the person hiding behind his alias not aplogise for the incorrect, rude, insulting, illegal statement he made regarding me and theft of fonts from Hoefler type foundry.
A simple apology, in recognition of his baseless and false accusation is all I wanted, but his actions in total indifference has made me consider harder recompense. Creative Pro has offered to supply me with the sign on email address of this person,
One last chance to apologise
Graham Meade.
he is just one of thousands, piracy will not stop but grow until there will be no money to be made on intellectual property, so who cares, they got one guy… if you arrest someone for stealing from a store, its not going to stop everyone else… not a big victory…. probably cost the companys more to pursue this robin hood that the losses they incured from him.
The Yahoo group, FontzRUz, emails It’s members pay fonts all the time.
To know for sure, become a member & see for yourself. ;)