Anti-Piracy Ad Campaign

You Wouldn't Steal a Car


If you have purchased a DVD, seen a movie in theaters, or watched broadcast television commercials in the last seven years, you have probably seen an ad like this one:

The following parody of an anti-piracy ad was featured in Series 3, Episode 3 of the BBC Sitcom The IT Crowd, titled "Moss and the German."

While hilarious and extreme, the creative team behind The IT Crowd make an important point: anti-piracy ads establish downloading media files as a serious crime; on par with burglary or grand theft auto. 


The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) began running ads like this in 2004, maintaining a long tradition of fighting copyright infringement with a heaping helping of hyperbole. In the 1980s, the MPAA opposed the introduction of the VCR to American consumers with the same level of hysteria. Jack Valenti spoke at a 1982 congressional hearing about copyright infringement, where he voiced his concerns about the "savagery and the ravages of this machine," comparing the effects of the VCR on the film industry and the American public to the Boston Strangler. 

Ads like these come as a reaction to the emergence of computer and internet technologies that made peer-2-peer sharing much more efficient than it had been in the past. Moreover, the "No Electronic Theft (NET) Act of 1997" (H.R. 2265) made the revision that all copyright infringement, even copyright infringement without financial gain, would be subject to criminal charges.

Some interesting quotes from the House floor:

"...the No Electronic Theft or Net Act, represents an important legislative response to those persons who cavalierly appropriate copyrighted works and share them with other Internet thieves[...]there are a good number of Americans who enjoy stealing. Thievery, larceny, fraud, piracy, call it what you will. It is in their blood, and even in some instances, even when they do not realize remuneration or gain from it. Just the thrill of stealing." - Representative Howard Coble (NC 6th District)*

"Pirating works online is the same as shoplifting a video tape, book, or computer program from a department store. Through a loophole in the law, however, copyright infringers who intentionally pirate works, as long as they do not do so for profit, are outside the reach of our nation's law enforcement officials. This bizarre situation has developed because the authors of our copyright laws did not and could not have anticipated the nature of the Internet, which has made the theft of all sorts of copyrighted works virtually cost-free and anonymous." - Representative Bob Goodlatte (VA 6th District)**

"The NET Act addresses serious problems created by the LaMacchia decision. You have heard what those problems are. I will not repeat them. Suffice it to say that MPAA very strongly supports the NET Act and we urge its rapid enactment....As I said earlier, we could go through enormous resources to civilly enforce of our copyrights, but effective anti-piracy action cannot be done without criminal enforcement; and we depend heavily upon law enforcement agencies to enforce copyrights." - Fritz E. Attaway, Senior V.P., Government Relations and Washington General Counsel, Motion Picture Association of America.

*It should be noted that the National Cable Television Association, Time Warner, the National Association of Broadcasters, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association were among Rep. Coble's top 10 contributors for 1997-1998.*

**Rep. Goodlatte's top campaign contributions in 1997-1998 also included the National Cable Television Association and Time Warner.**
  
This is when the Internet bit of Internet Piracy really kicked off. It was a simple revision of the copyright law, but that revision removed the need for financial gain in order to prosecute criminally. A new breed of criminal was born -- the cyber pirate. People that shared files of copyrighted work for free were now eligible to incur sentences from 1 year (misdemeanor), to 5 years (felony), or as much as 10 years (repeat offenders). The MPAA unleashed these ads to hopefully intimidate the pirates and retain their steady profits.  


Submission


Even though these ads have become ubiquitous in the United States, it is important to stop and realize that the agencies like the MPAA are behind all of them. Recording artists and filmmakers do not make ads accusing their fans or consumers of being criminals, that job is taken by the RIAA and MPAA. Correction, most artists don't preach about piracy. Jack Black just had to be different:

At the very least, this ad is better than the others because it is meant to be funny, rather than being unintentionally funny because the MPAA is on a witch hunt. I can't help but think that even though Jack probably does support at least some aspect of copyright law, he must feel like such a corporate shill at times.