One of my earlier web experiments was to make an “image font” of the letters used in stereotypical ransom letters (see Ransom Letters). These were letters of the alphabet cut out from magazines. I still remember the old card table I had that was covered with these letters I cut out of old Wired magazines.
While I built the website and provided downloadable images for others to try their hand at creating images with those ransom letters, I always had a nagging worry that my own creation could be used against me, or someone else. What if the FBI came to me and had traced the letters back to my font? What if they thought I was involved or that I had aided & abetted the criminals?
That was thinking very highly of myself, I admit. But in those early days of the web, you’d be amazed at how often a little home-brew website would show up in the search engines (for a humorous slice of history, see my As Search On… website).
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