Consequences of unlicensed fonts & will you get caught?
Using an unlicensed font file is a violation of copyright law because fonts are considered intellectual property. Realistically, there probably won’t be an immediate consequence. But if the project is large scale or high profile it’s very likely that someone will pick up the infringement. And with the rise of AI I’m sure there are AI scanners that specifically look these type of infringements. And font foundries actually hire people to search for things like this but there are also sites like Font Radar who will do it for you. But using a font commercially without the proper license will impact your ability to trademark anything using the font – which clients will have an issue with, you won’t be able to release it at an international level, you wont have access to all the glyphs and additional features of the font and there may be technical issues – so the font may not display properly, like on a website. Using unlicensed fonts also damages your reputation as a designer. When you get caught, you’ll have to pay for the font and potentially a fine to cover the length of time you used the font unlicensed, if legal action is taken – you don’t have the license dated from when you released the design you have no ground to stand on. And lastly, it’s unethical and slap in the face to the typeface designer.