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The designers I work with have a host of fonts installed on their computers, dating to 10+ years ago. Unfortunately, since that time, they completely lost whatever license files they may have had (and I have no idea if they ever were licensed).

These days, they still occasionally use these random, old fonts. When I can find the font names on pay sites (like fonts.com or fontspring.com), I try to get the designers to find a safe substitute on Google Fonts, Font Squirrel, or TypeKit.

To date, I have run across two fonts they have used which, to my knowledge, were not being sold anywhere, and had no license of any sort. These are "Paintstroke" and "Braddon". Both are offered by various places as free downloads (wink, wink).

Both font files carry a copyright (in the file properties) that mentions "enStep Incorporated", and give dates of 1997 (Braddon) and 1996 (Paintstroke).

Is there any risk in using these fonts on a website?

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  • Do the fonts belong to enstep.com/contact-us ? It would be worthwhile to shoot them an email.
    – MonkeyZeus
    Mar 29, 2016 at 19:39
  • @MonkeyZeus I don't think so. From their about page: "Founded in 2001, Enstep Technology Solutions is a technology business partner". The font files I have were created in the mid 90s. Mar 29, 2016 at 20:48

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It would be real headache for you if you were contacted by a lawyer who bought for a penny all copyrights from this defunct company and makes quick money as copyright troll.

My opinion: There are so many beautiful free fonts - why use such outdated stuff with non-transparent copyright situation?

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  • Totally agree about beautiful free fonts....but the designers are picky about fonts (but not about licensing, apparently). Mar 29, 2016 at 18:16
  • in germany, where i'm located, copyright issue can be pretty painful - designers should be aware more about copyright as about font face
    – Evgeniy
    Mar 29, 2016 at 18:19

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