Thirsty Rough is currently number 4 on Hot Sellers.

Is there an issue with Thirsty Script or Yellow Design I don't know about?

Thirsty script is derivative of Wisdom Script. It is, however, better designed and comes in more weights.

My understanding is that James Edmondson, designer of Wisdom Script, came to an agreement with the Yellow Design Studio people.

I don't think there's any issue here.

I'd like to follow up on this a bit.

The Yellow Design people admitted the influence. Mr Edmondson admitted that Thirsty is somewhat of an improvement over Wisdom. Wisdom was his first font, and I think he's done with it.

As a typographer, I'm going to use the best-made font for a project. Should I feel ethically compromised about this? In this case, I don't think so, as I believe they have struck a royalty agreement.

It was my impression that Yellow was going to keep the font out there regardless, which in America, unfortunately, they would have had the legal right to do. I am glad they came to some kind of deal with Edmondson, but its my impression they only did so grudgingly after MyFonts threatened to pull the font.

Here's the thread featuring both designers:

http://typophile.com/node/93171

Looking at the two scripts, it seems to me that while Thirsty Script and Wisdom Script both belong to the same general category of scripts, the former isn't a copy of the latter; Wisdom Script has the distinctive characteristic of being condensed and more squared-off (less rounded) than a conventional script, which Thirsty Script avoids.

As for the source for those fonts, wouldn't it be the same source as gave rise to Lobster, or Bolero - although that one is perhaps not a fair comparison, being closer to a more generic script - or whatever was the source of Dieter Steffmann's Marketing Script, especially. That one reminds me of what I had in mind here...

Or there's Deftone Stylus from Typodermic, as well.

Lobster, Bolero, and Deftone Stylus are all great scripts

Ryan, are you talking about Bolero Script on Eagle Fonts?

http://typophile.com/node/93171

its my impression they only did so grudgingly after MyFonts threatened to pull the font.

Impression, or conjecture?

Ryan, don't be holier than the pope - what's good enough for Edmondson should be good enough for you. Martinson did the right thing, which is rare these days, so cut him some slack.

hhp

OK, while I haven't found the original name, the typeface I was thinking of likely was Bitstream's Freehand 521.

I was talking about the one from Canada Type, typerror

The Pope's holy now?