Font Raid Spells Trouble for Publisher

rs232 writes to tell us The Register is reporting on a publishing firm that got fined for using unlicensed fonts. The firm claimed to only be actively using one font, but was found to be using approximately 11,000. In addition to their font headaches, the firm was also found to be unlicensed on 95% of their Adobe software and 75% of their Microsoft software — talk about a bad week.

Comments

Ouch.

[Kid Zero]

Unlicensed software is always font of trouble in the business world, it seems.

Simple solution

[Foobar of Borg]

The simplest solution is to use Courier or Courier New. Noone uses typewriters anymore, so it will confuse everyone and set you apart from everyone else.

Re:Simple solution

[Tribbin]

Nobody uses it you said? I had to type my homepage on a typewriter because my server shut down and I lost all my information!

http://tribbin.nl/

Re:Simple solution

[anaesthetica]

The simplest solution is to use Courier or Courier New. Noone uses typewriters anymore, so it will confuse everyone and set you apart from everyone else.

Why isn't your post in courier new then?

New Font Released soon!

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft Sans Licence.

Re:the beast of the nature

[GGardner]

Every new article I read about any of these pushes me further from commercial offerings (not that that is any great deal anymore).

I'm sorry, but this is an unlicensed thought. Please change your mind or pay up.

Widespread

[Ohreally_factor]

A graphic designer I know (an ex-gf, actually) has not paid for either software or fonts for the last decade. She has rationalized that because once, in a staff position, she authorized the purchase of approximately 20 seats of adobe software for a graphics department, so Adobe owes her. She uses cracked copies.

I've often wondered what would happen to her and her clients if Adobe got wind of this. (Yes, it was a spectacularly bad break up.) =)

Re:Widespread

[Anonymous Coward]

Do it. You know you want to do it. DO IT.

Re:Licensing woes

[voice_of_all_reason]

lol... "Oh shit, it's the WinZip police! Hide!"

It's all about cost versus risk. In this case, the risk of WinZip stormtroopers crashing through the skylight and throwing flash-bangs is so low as to be laughable. Microsoft, not so much...

Re:What the heck is the BSA?

[taniwha]

Th Boy Scouts of America are a paramilitary organization known for tieing their opposition up in knots ....

Re:Wha...?

[Rob T Firefly]

How is it even possible to use 11,000 different type faces??

Ever read Wired Magazine in the 1990s?

Re:Wha...?

[Rorschach1]

How is it even possible to use 11,000 different type faces??

You've never been on MySpace, have you?

Re:Wha...?

[Bogtha]

How is it even possible to use 11,000 different type faces?

One overenthusiastic manager and a copy of Powerpoint.

Re:Wha...?

[Ryan Amos]

It'd probably be an interesting magazine if the editors were eating acid.

I think the tons of font faces were something some aging designer thought approximated leetspeak (it hurts my eyes to read it, its gotta be cool!)

Its cool

[Woy]

Read the software license you agreed to when you installed most any software. Almost all of them have a clause in there that says you agree, at your expense, to let the software maker or their appointed agent come in at any time and audit you for license compliance.

Its cool. Linus is welcome in my house anytime!

Re:the beast of the nature

[kurzweilfreak]

Wow, I was way off, as I was thinking of the Bull Shit Association, which could also be construed as a possibly more wholesome organization, or at least an equally wholesome one, as the other BSA.

Eh, 6 of one, half dozen of the other; it all smells like crap.