Would This Goofy Video Stop You From Pirating Music?

Published on September 12th, 2009

Posted by Uncle Dave in Business, The Internet, music

Have you seen the new antipiracy video from the software industry? It is execrable! Outdated, kinda offensive, and embarrassingly unhip, the clip has a zero percent chance of achieving its goal of deterring illegal downloads on campus. One young person I shared it with said the video made him want to go pirate something, anything, out of spite.

Don’t Copy That 2─a sequel to the campy 1992 educational video Don’t Copy That Floppy─is telling about the industry’s failure to reach students.

Keith Kupferschmid, the Software & Information Industry Association’s policy director, was magnanimous enough to answer my sputtering questions about some of the video’s inexplicable choices. Like: why rap, in 2009? (That’s like sending a disco star to lecture a ’90s classroom to get its “groove thang on” by respecting copyrights.) If you’re referencing a videogame, why choose Doom, which dates to 1993? Why Klingons, instead of teenage vampires or wizards?

“We just didn’t thinkabout the vampire thing, I suppose,” says Kupferschmid.

It’s possible to be so blinded by the creative failures of Don’t Copy That 2 that you don’t notice its failures on the merits.

More bands are getting on the anti-government intervention (ie, the ‘we kill your Interwebitube connection’ for file sharing) bandwagon.

32 users responded in " Would This Goofy Video Stop You From Pirating Music? "

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# 1 Rick said, on September 12th, 2009 at 6:11 am

I hope they got all the proper licensing permissions for those very-much-proprietary characters from those video games and shows. I’d hate to think that they didn’t pay the creators what they deserve…
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# 2 SparkyOne said, on September 12th, 2009 at 6:21 am

My kids think that Viagra did away with floppy disks somewhere about 1997.

# 3 fw said, on September 12th, 2009 at 6:23 am

I have not done any in a while, but this gives me an inclination to go and dl stuff just as a protest.

# 4 pedro said, on September 12th, 2009 at 7:08 am

#3 Sure, do the wrong thing for the… wrong thing.

# 5 Ron Larson said, on September 12th, 2009 at 7:10 am

Mondello was running a large scale software pirating operation selling it on eBay under hundreds of names.

He also was stealing identities, mail fraud, etc.

That is why he is doing 4 years in federal PITA prison.

Not your typical “pirate” as claimed in this video…. which sucks so bad it makes me want to pirate something.

Gotta love the jack boot thugs who break into a private citizen’s house and terrorize the mother. I’m surprised they just didn’t shoot her on the spot.

# 6 Lars Ulrich said, on September 12th, 2009 at 7:46 am

I thought the video was excellent, and the message was profound.

I was listening to a story on NPR on Friday about how apes can make their own music and they also love Metallica. I wonder how long before they too start pirating our product?

# 7 FRAGaLOT said, on September 12th, 2009 at 8:00 am

yeah it’s a crime if you try to SELL bootleg copies of anything copyrighted. People have been busted for that for decades long before the internet came around. However most people are not pirating stuff for money, since it’s easier to get it for free YOUR SELF.

Software and games are so expensive, and DRM is so rampant, it’s difficult for most people to go 50/50 on a new $60 video game and can only play it on one system at a time.

# 8 Energy to burn said, on September 12th, 2009 at 8:03 am

Actually most people don’t pirate music, as most music that is copied is copied for personal use and thus is not subject to piracy laws which don’t exist.

# 9 Peter K said, on September 12th, 2009 at 8:07 am

I like how its an asian kid doing the copying in he video..

# 10 handburger said, on September 12th, 2009 at 8:09 am

It’s just a copy though right!?

# 11 Improbus said, on September 12th, 2009 at 8:20 am

Excuse me while I shed crocodile tears for the music labels, book publishers and movie industry. Byte me arseholes.

# 12 Lalas_EFO said, on September 12th, 2009 at 8:46 am

I wonder if Mondello had that high pitch voice before or if its a side-effect of prison shower-hour…

# 13 Fat_Anarchy said, on September 12th, 2009 at 9:58 am

Man that was hilarious. At first I thought it was clearly a satire of the anti-piracy videos and the cliche stigma of these big corporations not being able to relate to young people. When I found out that it wasn’t a joke, but a legitimate attempt to send their message, then it just became cringe-worthy.

We all know that these people are out of touch, and thats why they keep throwing money at this anti-piracy campaign, despite eveidence showing that it is as useful pissing in the wind. This video was a sort of physical realisation of their philosophies on tackling this subject, i.e, pointless, dated and just embarassingly misguided.

# 14 Number 6 said, on September 12th, 2009 at 11:36 am

Their approach highlights the invalidity of intellectual property laws. Their argument … do it our way or armed thugs will attack you and you mom.

If they had a reasoned argument to make, they’d make it. The only argument they have is force. I’ll give them that … they’ve got more money to sue and more politicians to purchase than I can.

I guess that means they are right.

For anyone who wants a reasoned approached to intellectual property, not based on naked force, check out:

http://mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf

# 15 Lucas said, on September 12th, 2009 at 11:46 am

Is this video for real? What were they thinking?!

# 16 pukeing said, on September 12th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

Why is Obama trying to tell kids not to copy stuff.

How much did the white house spend on this video.

I heard that Obama had a message for kids but I had no idea Obama was going to do a music video.

# 17 Zybch said, on September 12th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

What has always confused be about these things (and those dreadful “you wouldn’t steal a handbag” things on DVDs, is that if you get a pirate copy of the thing the annoying warnings have been stripped out of the content.
Its ONLY people that have purchased the content legally that are subjected to the crap.
When I bought the game crysis, I didn’t even bother installing it, I just downloaded a pre-cracked copy and have used that as there is no stupid serial number activation, and no requirement to keep the disk in the drive whenever I want to play the game. The same thing happens with DVDs that are manufactured so far out of spec that many (mainly older) DVD players can’t properly read the disks without the video stuttering. I just copy them, strip out the non-skipable warnings and trailers and play the copies with out all the frustration.

Till the movie/game industry make running legal content as easy and trivial as running pirate material they have no hope in cutting down the number of pirated games and movies.

# 18 maryland157 said, on September 12th, 2009 at 1:25 pm

I stopped watching it half way through. I hate it when anti-privacy people try to make kids think that they will got to jail if they pirate software……The most that will happen is that they will sue you. You won’t go to jail for such a thing (unless your the pirate bay)

# 19 Rich said, on September 12th, 2009 at 1:45 pm

The Klingons don’t download, but you can bet the Romulans do.

# 20 Hugh Ripper said, on September 12th, 2009 at 5:36 pm

I made it to 1:19. My face was starting to melt from the un-coolness. Did they borrow Microsoft’s marketing department for this one?

# 21 ECA said, on September 12th, 2009 at 9:24 pm

“Cause you dont want to pay a few bucks??”

When 10 albums is MOST of the food you are going to buy?? They want me to pay HOW MUCH??

since the cost of goods has increased 30-50%..
And wages DIDNT go up for years.

NOW wages are going up, and COSTS are going up FASTER.

When CANADA is considered the MAJOR pirate of the world??

# 22 lividd said, on September 12th, 2009 at 11:18 pm

music is just like sex. some people have to pay for it but most of us get it for free

# 23 Glenn E. said, on September 13th, 2009 at 1:35 am

I haven’t bothered to view this latest bit of RIAA propaganda. But I did watch the Weird Al Yankovic music video, “Don’t Download This Song”, some time ago. Since it was done in a chalk sketch style of animation. I assumed it wasn’t meant to be a serious message or plea. And it certainly exaggerated the consequences of song piracy, to the character depicted. Weird Al, having a little fun at the music industry’s expense. Or, they’re taking all this way too seriously.

If they made music so plentiful and cheap, that they’d buy it the way they buy bottled water. There would be very little piracy, in proportion to what was produced. But the industry is only making and selling music as if they were selling diamonds. And can’t understand why people would copy it, rather than pay a small fortune for it. People buy bottled water and juices, because it’s convenient and fairly cheap. If the price were jacked up by corporate greed (as music is). Then people would buy empty bottles and fill them themselves. And no stupid law prohibiting that, is going to work.

So the only thing the music industry is really accomplishing, is stifling the creation and distribution of independent music. By making sure the same channels that carry indy music, are blamed for carrying copyrighted music, illegally. So it all gets shutdown. It wouldn’t surprise me if the recording industry “leaked” tunes onto P2P, just so they can cry foul of it all. If piracy didn’t already exist. They’d have invented it.

# 24 FirstTimeCaller said, on September 13th, 2009 at 4:50 am

The video won’t make me stop pirating music, but it might get me to turn in my friends for a cool $1Million as mentioned at the end!

Oh, #1. I thought the same thing but they do thank Star Trek and idSoftware at the end — so I guess they have permission.

# 25 whatagroovytimemachineRIAAhas said, on September 13th, 2009 at 6:22 am

Embarrassingly bad and just another demonstration of how completely out of touch the ogres at RIAA are with modern life as we humans live it.

The bottom line problem is that their media is SIMPLY WAY TOO EXPENSIVE both in terms of what people earn and can afford to pay for entertainment, and in terms of intrinsic worth of much of what amounts to….garbage. Garbage that costs far less to actually make than what we are supposed to pay for it. If RIAA wants to reduce or eliminate piracy, the common sense thing to do is STOP THE JACKBOOT THUG POLICIES and simply reduce the price of the media to something people are actually are willing and able to pay for. The greed of this organization is apparently boundless. It always pisses me off when I find a great video on YouTube from the 60s or 70s that NO ONE is going to buy as it’s too obscure, and then I find it removed or wrecked (audio lifted) because of this copyright crap. The funny thing is….if they offered me the opportunity to actually BUY that video…at a reasonable price….I WOULD! But I don’t even get that option. And the artists who might have been lifted from obscurity by posting the video go right back into the memory hole of the ages….

So fug RIAA and the time machine they teleported in on.

# 26 ECA said, on September 13th, 2009 at 11:18 am

23,25,
CORRECT.
we had this discussion, long ago here.
the COST of protecting Video and Audio is 1/2 the price. from DRM to Lawyers to the COMPANY INSTALLING THE DRM..
DRM only WORKS when you try to play a CD on a computer.
There are ways to MAKE IT EVEN CHEAPER.
I and a friend discussed this over 10 years ago.
A INSTANT burning Display system.
1 disk, and you can burn 1000’s.
You cut SHIPPING HANDLING, DRM, ART WORK, Even Cut advertising as the BOX does it IN SHOP.
1 machine can store TONS of videos, and take up a 4×4 area.. NOT even a video store could handle what 2-3 of these machines could handle.
You could CUT the DRM and Lawyers out which is 1/2, CUT your advertising out by AT LEAST 1/2, Cut SHIPPING 1,000,000 packages to 5-10..You could even send ihem in the MAIL for a few $$..insted of loading up TRUCKS with disks.
You could cut PROBABLY 3/4 of the COST out of the Selling of the Music or Movie..and STILL make profits EQUAL to what they have NOW…
(going to fire about 1/2 the work force)
Insted of a $20 release…Its $5-7..NEW and BURNT in front of you.
AND…we are using the CHEAP disks not the ARCHIVAL types that last 100 years.

You could even do this with SOFTWARE.. Thinbk of cutting 3/4 off a $50 NEW program..
Think about having 1000’s of pieces of software/demos/freeware in a 4×4 Cabinet..

A cabinet that you could install ANYWHERE..
From gas stations, to WALMART..

# 27 ECA said, on September 13th, 2009 at 12:52 pm

Also,
Think about availability..
With the system I mentioned, you could store EVERY MOVIE and ALL the music the Corps have ever gotten.. The selection would be Outrageous..
as well as a system that could BURN your music in the FORMAT YOU NEED/WANT.

It could also Burn the MOVIES in Standard VOB for ANY DVD player, with not COPY PROTECTION, which means it will play on ANY DVD PLAYER, or one of the OTHER nice formats, WMV, DIVX, MP4, MP2, and be able to play on(ALMOST) ANY DEVICE you want.(I WONT watch a movie on a 4″ screen)

So, everything is taken care of, and the media can be PLAYED on Many, many machines/devices.
Setting up 1 machine would cost about $15k-20k and burn EITHER CD or DVD..BL is abit more expensive.. Making a profit of $1 per sale? over 1 year would pay off the machine, AT THE LEAST. And if it doesnt, your machine is in the WRONG SPOT.

# 28 GetSmart said, on September 13th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

It certainly wouldn’t be any of the MAFIAA’s moronic propaganda that stopped me. It’s usually the total lack of anything I’d care to “steal” from them. Most of it is utter dreck to begin with and the amount of compression used on the audio of most modern releases makes even the stuff I might be interested in difficult to listen to.

# 29 Scooter said, on September 14th, 2009 at 4:41 am

The funniest part was the part where they were talking about paying the artists. Not that it makes piracy right but when was the last time the artists didn’t also get the shaft from the music industry? The RIAA has yet to pay out all of the money they have collected from the piracy lawsuits.” I’d hate to think that they didn’t pay the creators what they deserve…” as quoted from above fits the music industry as well. They are thieves of a different sort.

# 30 Jeremiah Mondello said, on September 14th, 2009 at 8:13 am

My new job is monitoring Dvorak Uncensored and data-mining names, urls and identities. If I do good, I get out sooner.

# 31 ECA said, on September 14th, 2009 at 1:03 pm

29,
YES, that is fun isnt it..
WHERES all the money the RIAA/MPAA have gotten WENT TO??
I dont think the artist got ANY, as the lawyers got paid FIRST.

# 32 Rick Cain said, on September 15th, 2009 at 5:02 pm

The only thing that comes to mind when I think of DP is “double penetration”.

Good job industry, welcome to Clueless Land.

BTW I sure hope they got licensing rights for the DOOM references, the Klingons, Panasonic, Yahoo, Ricoh, Ernst & Young, and so on.

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