In 2004 the MPAA launched its infamous “You wouldn’t steal…” campaign. The clip was put on millions of retail DVDs and viewers were watch it before they could enjoy the actual content.
The message of the anti-piracy ad was pretty straightforward and the full text goes as follows.
“You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a mobile phone. You wouldn’t steal a DVD. Downloading pirated films is stealing…Stealing…Is Against…The Law…Piracy: It’s a crime.”
The purpose of the campaign was to change the public’s attitude towards piracy, but it failed miserably. In the years that followed movie piracy doubled, tripled and quadrupled, especially on BitTorrent.
The only good thing that came of it are the many parodies of the campaign which are quite entertaining. I’ve listed a couple of them below (including the original) but there are probably several I’ve missed.
If you know any other parodies please leave a comment and I’ll add it.
The Original
Bender’s Take on Piracy
The IT-Crowd’s Parody
Adult Parody
Europe’s Greens Promoting Sharing (not really a parody)
Update: The tune was actually “pirated”
Another Parody (Zachary)
Historical Piracy Warning Parody (Foo)
Yet Another Parody (noone)
Article from: FreakBits