Legal Research

Copyright Video [Fail]

By Omar Ha-Redeye

Are rapping Klingons the answer to copyright violation? Probably not.

In 1992, the Software Publishers Association, now the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), released a video, “Don’t Copy that Floppy,” aimed at youth to curb the use of copyrighted materials such as games.    The video starred a rapper-lawyer M.E. Hart, as well as interviews with various persons from the industry.

The digitally remastered 1992 video is available on Hart’s YouTube Channel.

This past week SIIA released a sequel to the video, focusing on copyright of games, music, and software.  It starts out with a bunch of contemporary youth, laughing at the classic 1992 Hart rap.

But it then continues through strange journey through Times Square, prison, and… rapping Klingons.

Klingons?

As Nick Summers of Newsweek says,

Why Klingons, instead of teenage vampires or wizards?

Is there a potential for backlash?  Well, one commenter on the video states,

This? is horrible. So horrible that i’m downloading this video and selling it to people.

Another says,

im (sic) gonna go pirate something, just? because this video exists

As the kids these days would say, that totally “Fails.”

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on September 13, 2009 (boomark / email).