Hi All!
For those of you who missed my talk at Typecon, I was pleased to announce a collaborative new project I'm participating in called TypeSnitch. Please take a look at the site and participate, donate and help spread the word:
http://www.typesnitch.comBest,
Stuart
Comments
83% Nearly There! Help us push it through 100% Please spread the word and encourage fellow font designers to particiate!
Thank you!
Stuart
Thanks for getting this going, Stuart.
What are the "popular sources" that are being targeted? Is it mostly torrent sites? File sharing services? To that extent, is there much that can be done for private torrent trackers and the ilk?
I'd also like to know who specifically is working on this. The teaser site is a bit vague.
What's the timeframe like for launch?
I'm working with Grant to get the audio recordings to I can sync them to my keynote but I'm told the audio requires some scrubbing to remove the ambient noise before I'm able to do this. I will of course release this once I receive them from him . . .
If you look at the original TypeSnitch post in the Champagne room entitled Piracy Policing Policies, it explains that its more important to target would-be customers of the fonts rather than straight-up pirates who will use the torrent sites and similar.
The primary goal is to assure a Google search for a font name goes to all the locations it can be purchased from rather then all the places it can be freely downloaded. As the system gets built and released, it will be improved and expanded to include searches for things like illegally converted web fonts and the like and may extend into the Apps world but for now the core effort is focusing on search engine results and take-downs of illegally posted commercial fonts.
Beyond that, the ambiguity of the effort is intentional so that no individual becomes a target of a response from the piracy community. I can tell you I'm a promoter of the idea and have contributed to it and am in communication with the developers. Beyond that, as far as timeframes, etc it is primarily the developers schedule and I can say anybody who has contributed will be kept up to date on this via community mailings and a site forum.
I've returned from my travels and have connected with the developer Mark Fox regarding the status of TypeSnitch. He will be posting to the TypeSnitch MiniGroup in the coming days with some exciting updates for the backers.
Thanks for your continued patience!