Slashdot Mirror

theodp writes "Back in 1992, the SIIA released Don't Copy That Floppy!, a goofy video in which anti-piracy rapper MC Double Def DP convinces a young lad not to copy a game by appealing to his sense of right and wrong. Now, to address what it calls 'new generations and new temptations,' the SIIA has uploaded a trailer for a new anti-piracy rap video — Don't Copy That 2 — that will be released this summer. To underscore the video's it's-not-just-a-copy-it's-a-crime message, the new film is a tad darker than the original. A smug teen who's downloading files from 'Pirates Palace' and 'Tune Weasel' finds his world turned upside down when automatic weapons-toting government agents break down the door and take his Mom away in handcuffs. The teen finds himself in a prison jumpsuit forced to tattoo shirtless adult inmates who eventually turn on him, physically attack him, and make him run for his life back to his jail cell (image summarizing his plight)."

theodp writes "Back in 1992, the SIIA released Don't Copy That Floppy!, a goofy video in which anti-piracy rapper MC Double Def DP convinces a young lad not to copy a game by appealing to his sense of right and wrong. Now, to address what it calls 'new generations and new temptations,' the SIIA has uploaded a trailer for a new anti-piracy rap video — Don't Copy That 2 — that will be released this summer. To underscore the video's it's-not-just-a-copy-it's-a-crime message, the new film is a tad darker than the original. A smug teen who's downloading files from 'Pirates Palace' and 'Tune Weasel' finds his world turned upside down when automatic weapons-toting government agents break down the door and take his Mom away in handcuffs. The teen finds himself in a prison jumpsuit forced to tattoo shirtless adult inmates who eventually turn on him, physically attack him, and make him run for his life back to his jail cell (image summarizing his plight)."

An anonymous reader sends in Monitor Man: "Monitor Man is the latest idea in Japan for advertising at sports matches. Seems to be quite popular with the kids, anyway... siliconshock writes "Here is a torrent link to a 10 year old educational video from the SPA (Software Publisher's Association), which tells kids not to 'copy that floppy'. The video contains oldskool screen shots from "Oregon Trail", "Tetris" and other games of the era. The best part is the rapper who is singing and dancing to a great anti-piracy song. Here is more info. The file is 16mb, and in case you were worried about this file being copyrighted.... 'The Software Publishers Association gives you permission to copy this video for the non-profit purpose of promoting the ethical and legal use of software.'" And [vmlinuz] writes "After recently hearing a few different versions of RMS's legendary Free Software Song, I decided to do my own version, considerably heavier. You can get it in MP3 and OGG format."

leabre writes " Yahoo! Intellectual Property News is reporting that a small video distributer is being sued (U.S. Supreme Court) over reusing a work (WWII documentary) whose copyright had expired in the 70s, without giving credit to 20th Century Fox on the now public-domain work. What's more, Fox wants the courts to expand the copyright (which it let fall into the public domain more than 20 years ago) so they can recover damages from the distributer... " Read on for more (including several links) about this case. favorite quote: 'Justice Sandra Day O'Connor told Cendali that her client let the copyright lapse for the documentary, in the 1970s, and now wants the court to expand copyright protection so it can recover damages from Dastar. "The defense replies 'It was in the public domain,' O'Connor said. 'Of course they had a right to copy it.'" The outcome of this should be watched closely as it has the potential to further distort our fair use rights. There are more links on EFF , Dept. of Justice, and the Supreme court filing (appeal)[pdf]."

guerby writes: "Dan Bricklin's (author of Visicalc) article The Software Police vs. the CD Lawyers recently reprinted on the ACM Ubiquity magazine provides an interesting (and debatable) parallel between the SIIA (Software and Information Industry Association) and RIAA (well known to /. readers ;-) strategy against 'pirates.'" It does raise some good points -- and helps explain why groups like the BSA don't raise hackles the way the RIAA does: they tend to go after the large-scale counterfeiters, not kids with a cracked copy of Photoshop.