“You wouldn’t steal a car” anti-piracy campaign may have used pirated fonts

The Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) anti-piracy campaign from 2004-2008, designed to deter piracy by suggesting "You wouldn’t steal a car," inadvertently used fonts that were already known. Initially spotted as spray-painted text on the ad, researchers discovered it used FF Confidential font, a design by Just van Rossum from over two decades earlier. Melissa Lewis identified this and linked it to XBand Rough, a clone of FF Confidential. Van Rossum, who created both fonts, admitted he knew about the clones but wasn’t aware they were used in the MPAA campaign, finding the situation amusing.