You don't get owt for nowt!! (At least you shouldn't)

You may feel this a little geeky, but I spent most of this afternoon trying to find free fonts on the Internet. After an hour or so, I stumbled across a page whose first sentence was “I spent most of this afternoon trying to find free fonts on the Internet”. Intrigued by the article, who’s author was obviously suffering the same plight as myself, I read on what was a well-constructed argument on the issue of font piracy.
You see, a while back I discovered a font on my PC that I had planned to use as the principle typeface for this website – Bodoni. As for the details of its acquisition, they remain a complete mystery, since various fonts seem to leap into my computer, without my even knowing (the font fairies come in the night, when I’m asleep, presumably). Anyway, ‘tis a sad fact that computers suck and I had been forced to completely reinstall Windows due to some major fuck-up a couple of months ago, without the forethought to back-up my fonts. Hence, Bodoni had been lost forever. With my limited knowledge of the fraught and stressful world of typography politics, I figured that since I acquired it without even meaning to, then it mustn’t be too hard to find a passable free alternative on the internet. How wrong can a man be? Marko Karppinen has hit the nail on the head with this evaluation of the underground free font scene – “I dare you to type “free fonts” into Google and feel lucky. The parallels to smut become obvious in a split second”. I shan’t reiterate the whole of Karppinen’s article; you can read it yourself by going to http://www.markokarppinen.com/20020424.html. I guess the gist is that, as with anything, there is a price to pay if you want something. That goes for music too, but I'm not ready to tackle that particular thorny subject yet. Suffice to say, if something is worth having, it's worth paying for....