Did Microsoft steal its fonts from the Turkish army? (2012) | Hacker News Reader

Did Microsoft steal its fonts from the Turkish army? (2012)

rodrik.typepad.com

65 pointsantman18 comments

The fabricated evidence in a show trial against Turkish Army officers was accepted as genuine by the kangaroo court. Forensic analysis by the defense which found references to the Calibri font, introduced with Windows Vista and used as the new default font of Office 2007, was ignored by the court. The circumstances of the case set up a logical dichotomy: either the evidence was forged in an attempt to frame the defendants, or the Turkish Army had possession of fonts in 2003 that were supposedly invented by Microsoft in 2004.

So if the answer to the question posed by the headline is "no" (as is implied), then the Turkish court did not provide fair and impartial justice. It is a reductio ad absurdum argument against the guilt of the defendants.

This is why, in spite of generally being happy that the recent coup attempt failed, I am deeply concerned about what happens next. Six thousand arrested within a day or so of the failed coup? When we don't even really know what happened, yet? Erdogan and company are using it as an excuse to clean house. No investigation has been done, and I fear nothing resembling justice will occur. Turkey, meanwhile, edges closer to a dictatorship.

Terrible and misleading headline.

What would you suggest instead?

Well, this is a company doing the appropriation, so doesn't it make a lot more sense to use the term "borrow"? It wasn't some individual stealing the intellectual property of a poor corporation. A corporation just trying to create jobs and wealth for the little people.

This is a corporation acting toward a government entity so steal is a bit harsh. Everyone knows companies are better than governments and individuals. Therefore Microsoft clearly borrowed fonts from the Turkish army.

You didn't read the article, did you?

I did. Apparently that was too tongue in cheek at the ridiculousness of the title. Tongue through cheek I suppose. I am happy it gave you the opportunity to feel good about yourself.

Hey, this isn't about me, it's about making future comment threads you participate in not suck.

We strongly disagree on the title.

Fair, but it's worth remembering how hard it is to convey sarcasm via text.

Noted. Thank you.

The title is a reference to a minor sarcastic remark made in the blog post: a forged document containing the font Calibri was claimed to be last saved (in 2002) before Microsoft released the font (in 2006), yet the questionable Turkish court disregarded this indication of tampering with the last-saved date and accepted the document as factual. In fact, most of the post has nothing to do with Microsoft.

Bear in mind, this is not a news article, but just a blog post from 2012.

'Evidence' for Turkish 2003 coup plan predates publication of used font.

Font metadata proves 2003 Turkish coup plan evidence was faked.

That would be a good subtitle:

Did Microsoft steal its fonts from the Turkish army?: Font metadata proves 2003 Turkish coup plan evidence was faked.

It follows Betteridge's Law of Headlines[0].

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

Indeed, but Betteridge's Law of Headlines is often related to somehow sensationalist headlines, whereas this headline seems more like a part of a "Reductio ad absurdum".

No it's not, it's a succinct summary of the article that's eye-catching as well as informative as to the topic of the article itself.

It's actually a great headline, and is in no way misleading.

Misleading? Yeah, I can see what you mean. But did it deliver? Absolutely.

We can't reduce all the media to some newswire. Creativity is an amazing thing. Sure, it might not match your personal taste but that's also fine. Different people like different things.

There's no headline that would make every single person happy.

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