When fighting for the rights of copyright owners it helps to have a sense of humor. I’m grateful that the Software and Information Industry Association* has shown one in their new video titled “Don’t Copy That 2″ — here’s a link to its home with other goodies and here’s the YouTube link — an update of the 1992 viral classic “Don’t Copy that Floppy.” A look at SIIA’s board reveals a broad array of members, from publishers and database managers such as Reed Elsevier, Houghton Mifflin Hardcourt, Dow Jones, Thomson Reuters and McGraw Hill to tech innovators such as Oracle, Symantec, Adobe, Intuit, IBM and open-source pioneer Red Hat. That’s a broad coalition behind a group that recognizes the importance of copyright and copyright education, but also recognizes the cynicism often found around that topic.

The original rapper from “Don’t Copy that Floppy” — the tongue-twistingly titled MC Double Def DP — is back, and here’s a key message he raps that appropriately speaks to individual creators (with moderately acceptable rhymes):

Invest in your tools and do what you do.
Make a name for yourself, become authentically you.
Practice your craft until it’s crystal clear.
Turn your talent and passion into a career.
There are new rules in this wireless age.
Can you make your art and still get paid?
Can you walk the line and not get played?

The original video was successful in that it has been a viral hit on the Web seen by many, but “Reefer Madness” has been a decades-long viral hit without having much of an impact on the pot industry (now distributors grow it, illegally of course, in national parks).

The messaging in the original video was important — as now, software piracy was a huge problem in the early 1990s but a lot of people committing that piracy didn’t really make a connection to the fact that it was both wrong and illegal — but the video’s attempt at hipness fell flat for many of those who define themselves as hip and thus award themselves the right to decide what is not hip.

A personal aside, it’s too bad we’ve lost the rappin’ rhyme of “copy” and “floppy,” but today’s so-called digital natives likely have never even seen a 3.5″ storage disk that wasn’t actually floppy (as seen in the original video), let alone a 5-1/4″ IBM-style disk that was in fact highly floppy.

The core message remains simple and true. Piracy — of software and music and video, etc. — is illegal, and there are consequences. Note the video also focuses on those seeking to profit financially from piracy, which is indefensible on legal, moral and frankly any other grounds.

SIIA is brave in revisiting the video, this time embracing the campiness that was likely somewhat unintentional in the first one. The new one is a bit over the top — certainly riot troops storming a house and arresting a pirate’s mother can be defined as such — but such elements will help separate, in the comments section, those who “get” the whimsy of the video and those who don’t. (I’m told anything that is used in schools won’t have elements such as that, and will come with other educational resources.)

Is the humor gene deficient online? Most certainly. Just look at the nasty comments Telegraph reporter Matthew Moore suffered for writing a lighthearted column titled “50 things that are being killed by the Internet.” Presciently, his first entry of what has been lost is “The art of polite disagreement”: “While the inane spats of YouTube commenters may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have ‘agendas’.”

SIIA has an agenda, a transparent, positive pro-copyright and creator agenda. They also don’t hide from their role in the creation of this video. I admire both their message and their bravery, and recommend you enjoy a few minutes of humorous diversion by celebrating the triumphant return of “Digital Protector” DP, the technicolor rapping anti-pirate.

* Disclosure — SIIA is a founding member of the Copyright Alliance.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 11:53 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under blogging, copyright law, copyright opponents, counterfeit, education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.