The infamous anti-piracy ad from 2004, which opens with the line, “You wouldn’t steal a car,” is instantly recognizable to many. This ad builds a dramatic narrative linking various forms of theft to the illegal downloading of copyrighted materials such as films.

This messaging was notoriously overdramatic, drawing parody and ridicule, one of the most notable being from the British comedy series The IT Crowd. While the original ad had a brief airing, it birthed the long-lasting meme of “you wouldn’t download a car.”

Surprisingly, it has emerged that the campaign may have used a misleading font. The ad’s distinctive font appears to be the FF Confidential, designed by Just van Rossum in 1992. However, it turns out that it closely resembles another font known as XBand Rough, which van Rossum notes is an “illegal clone.”

In a curious turn of events, investigations revealed that the campaign likely utilized the XBand Rough font instead of the FF Confidential. This revelation was made by journalist Melissa Lewis, who consulted van Rossum after examining an archived PDF of the original campaign, which verified the use of the infringing font.

Van Rossum found the entire situation quite humorous, saying:

“I did not know that the campaign used XBand Rough and not FF Confidential, though. So this fact is new to me, and I find it hilarious.”

Such an irony—an anti-piracy campaign benefiting from a pirated font—spurs reflection on the complicated layers of copyright and originality in the digital age.