Two unnamed companies are being investigated by the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) for possible breaches of font piracy.

News of the investigations - no other details are available at present - comes as global font designer Agfa Monotype announced it has signed up with FAST to tackle the growing issue of unlicensed fonts.

The problem of font theft is so bad that it's estimated that 40 per cent of fonts owned by customers are unlicenced, costing the industry millions of pounds a year in lost revenue.

In a statement, Paul Brennan, general counsel at FAST, said: "This is a huge issue, but most corporates are unaware that it even exists. Corporate end users must understand the gravity of font software theft."

As a result of the tie-up FAST will now be getting tough and enforcing font software licences where necessary.

Said Brennan: "Corporate end users be warned - to achieve software compliance the issue of fonts cannot be ignored. In our experience most organisations are not even aware that fonts have to be audited in exactly the same way as software." ®

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