5 ms·

Loading iOS fonts dynamically

36 points by mh_ 14y ago

gburt 14y ago
You have to store the key with the data. These contracts are silly. :(
- Firehed 14y ago
  Font designers are not security experts, just as the music and movie industry are also not security experts. There's just as high of a chance that these fonts are already posted to torrent sites, too. At least with custom/designer fonts, they're not really designed to have mass-market appeal, but instead cater to having a few high-end, high-price customers. So trying to protect them, even ineffectively, makes a little more sense: the number of people inconvenienced for a given amount of item sales is far less than on a movie. But yes, it's pointless.
- smackfu 14y ago
  It only prevents casual piracy, where someone fairly non-technical opens the bundle and copies the original file out. Reverse-engineering the encryption is of course possible but much harder.
  - sneak 14y ago
    Not really. Casual pirates grab it off The Pirate Bay or similar where it's already in cleartext.
  - plorkyeran 14y ago
    Opening an iOS app bundle and copying a file out is already out of reach of a non-technical person.
    - smackfu 14y ago
      True. But I am certainly technical enough to do it, while I have no chance of breaking a coded decryption routine.
- mistercow 14y ago
  The same is basically true of any non-phoning-home copy protection scheme though. It is crackable, but it's a barrier. After all, the game is not to make the data impossible to get to. It's to make it more work to get to the data than the data is worth.
MatthewPhillips 14y ago
Probably the most important point of this article is to read the licenses on fonts you buy. Here's the popular Pictos icon font license: http://pictos.cc/font-license http://pictos.cc/font-license > Use, or allowing anyone else to use any of the Assets to create pornographic, fraudulent, obscene, immoral, infringing, illegal, blasphemous or defamatory material. Can't use Pictos on a porn site, apparently.
danabramov 14y ago
Ouch. We implemented a JS font loader a-la Google Web Fonts because we thought we can't load fonts in UIWebView other than via @font-face.
ef4 14y ago
We need to keep repeating this basic fact to people who think this kind of thing serves a purpose: "Reducing the number of people" who can access your precious content without your permission is stupid, because it only takes ONE person. He will readily share it with the rest of the world -- and probably already has.
- smackfu 14y ago
  OTOH, if people have to go through a trained technical person to pirate something, that's a weak spot that can be attacked via DMCA or lawsuits.
- Skroob 14y ago
  Pirated fonts aren't precious content.
duaneb 14y ago
Speaking of loading fonts dynamically- the site looks absolutely atrocious while loading (on Chrome, anyway). I reloaded the page multiple times before it finished loading because I thought there was a rendering bug.

36 points by mh_ 14y ago

gburt 14y ago

You have to store the key with the data. These contracts are silly. :(

Firehed 14y ago
Font designers are not security experts, just as the music and movie industry are also not security experts. There's just as high of a chance that these fonts are already posted to torrent sites, too. At least with custom/designer fonts, they're not really designed to have mass-market appeal, but instead cater to having a few high-end, high-price customers. So trying to protect them, even ineffectively, makes a little more sense: the number of people inconvenienced for a given amount of item sales is far less than on a movie. But yes, it's pointless.
smackfu 14y ago
It only prevents casual piracy, where someone fairly non-technical opens the bundle and copies the original file out. Reverse-engineering the encryption is of course possible but much harder.
- sneak 14y ago
  Not really. Casual pirates grab it off The Pirate Bay or similar where it's already in cleartext.
- plorkyeran 14y ago
  Opening an iOS app bundle and copying a file out is already out of reach of a non-technical person.
  - smackfu 14y ago
    True. But I am certainly technical enough to do it, while I have no chance of breaking a coded decryption routine.
mistercow 14y ago
The same is basically true of any non-phoning-home copy protection scheme though. It is crackable, but it's a barrier. After all, the game is not to make the data impossible to get to. It's to make it more work to get to the data than the data is worth.

MatthewPhillips 14y ago

Probably the most important point of this article is to read the licenses on fonts you buy. Here's the popular Pictos icon font license: http://pictos.cc/font-license http://pictos.cc/font-license > Use, or allowing anyone else to use any of the Assets to create pornographic, fraudulent, obscene, immoral, infringing, illegal, blasphemous or defamatory material. Can't use Pictos on a porn site, apparently.

danabramov 14y ago

Ouch. We implemented a JS font loader a-la Google Web Fonts because we thought we can't load fonts in UIWebView other than via @font-face.

ef4 14y ago

We need to keep repeating this basic fact to people who think this kind of thing serves a purpose: "Reducing the number of people" who can access your precious content without your permission is stupid, because it only takes ONE person. He will readily share it with the rest of the world -- and probably already has.

smackfu 14y ago
OTOH, if people have to go through a trained technical person to pirate something, that's a weak spot that can be attacked via DMCA or lawsuits.
Skroob 14y ago
Pirated fonts aren't precious content.

duaneb 14y ago

Speaking of loading fonts dynamically- the site looks absolutely atrocious while loading (on Chrome, anyway). I reloaded the page multiple times before it finished loading because I thought there was a rendering bug.