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By Andy McCue, 11 September 2003 15:20

NEWS Businesses are unwittingly risking fines and criminal prosecution through the use of unlicensed fonts according to the Federation Against Software Theft (Fast). Fast revealed that it is currently examining the potentially unlicensed use of fonts by two UK firms with a view to taking action against them. The UK font industry claims 40 per cent of its revenues are lost through font theft and font designer Agfa Monotype has enlisted the support of Fast to raise awareness of the issue. Fonts are usually acquired in operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and desktop applications, which actually restrict usage to any one specific workstation or desktop. But Paul Brennan, general counsel at Fast, told silicon.com that firms may break the licence terms if, for example, it started to change or edit fonts for use in a marketing campaign. But most corporates aren't aware of this, he said. "Most fonts are software and if you don't pay for it, then it is unlawful in the usual ways. It is fairly widespread," he said. Julie Strawson, marketing director at Agfa Monotype, said in a statement that the campaign will help to ensure that designers receive just rewards for their intellectual property and that end-users are software compliant. "The creative and design community is traditionally small, informal and therefore trust-based. But the nature of font distribution has been dramatically affected by the Internet, creating the need for tighter controls on licensing," she said.