You Wouldn't Steal a Car

"You Wouldn't Steal a Car" is the first sentence of a PSA which is part of an anti-piracy campaign "Piracy. It's a crime." It was created by the Federation Against Copyright Theft in cooperation with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore in 2004,[1][2] and appeared on many commercial DVDs as either a skippable clip or an unskippable clip before a film is shown. It shows a man committing theft of various objects, and compares these crimes with the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyrighted materials, such as films.[3][4]

Plot

In the starting, the viewer can see:

  • a girl, who is going to download a movie illegally onto her computer, or
  • a group whose members are going to choose a pirated movie from the supply of an illegal street vendor.

After that, the sentence "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CAR" appears on the screen (the common name of the PSA comes from here), and after that a man getting into a vehicle is visible. On the next scene, the viewer can read the text "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A HANDBAG" or "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A PURSE" and see the same man taking a purse which is hanging from the back of a chair.

The content of the following pictures can be one of these:

  • the words "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A TELEVISION" and the negative character taking over a TV from a window (if it's the ad with the downloading girl), or
  • the sentence "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A MOBILE PHONE" or "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CELL PHONE" and a hand getting one from a table. (if it's the ad with some guys buying a pirated film)

The next scene contains the text "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A MOVIE" or "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A DVD" and the man who is hiding a DVD under his leather jacket.

For a few seconds, the viewer can see the previous crimes in reverse. After that, these words can be visible depanding on the starting:

  • "DOWNLOADING"/"PIRATED"/"FILMS"/"IS STEALING" (if the downloading girl was at the beginning), or
  • "BUYING"/"PIRATED"/"FILMS"/"IS STEALING" (if the illegal street shop was at the starting).
  • "MOVIE"/"PIRACY"/"IS STEALING" (alternative version)

In the next pictures, the viewer can see the girl or the group and the text "STEALING"/"IS AGAINST"/"THE LAW". Finally,

  • the girl cancels the download and leaves the room, or
  • the group refuses pirated DVDs,

the sentences "PIRACY. IT'S A CRIME." appear, and the sound of a closing door is audible.

The ad then ends. What it ends with varies in the United Kingdom and in the United States, in the UK, it either ends with a black background or one with static, whilst in America, it ends with a graphic parodying a Motion Picture Association of America film rating bumper, which reads "I: Illegal Downloading; Inappropriate for All Ages".

The IT Crowd episode "Moss and the German" spoofed this advert near the start of the episode.

In The Amazing World Of Gumball episode "The DVD" Darwin conveys the information to Gumball after he was about to download a movie named "Alligators on a Train"

The Greens-European Free Alliance, in association with Rafilm, released their own version of the film to oppose the media industry and government views on existing copyright laws, as well as to educate the public on alternative views about intellectual property.[5][6]

The Juice Media produced a controversial parody of this video for Australia Day in 2017[7] The video compared the celebration of Australia Day, which marks the arrival of the First Fleet, to a number of infamous events in history. The events depicted include Nazis' "Final Solution", dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Sep 11 attacks on the Twin Towers.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Be HIP at the Movies". Intellectual Property Office of Singapore. July 27, 2004. Archived from the original on September 24, 2008. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  2. ↑ Finlo Rohrer (June 18, 2009). "Getting inside a downloader's head". BBC. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
  3. ↑ Sophia Harris (March 28, 2017). "Netflix's anti-piracy team aims to make stealing content uncool - Business - CBC News". Cbc.ca. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  4. ↑ Poon, Christopher. "'You wouldn't steal a car,' but I'd download one | Dot Comrade | Pique Newsmagazine | Whistler, CANADA". Pique Newsmagazine. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  5. ↑ "I would't steal". iwouldntsteal.net. The Greens-European Free Alliance. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  6. ↑ "I wouldn't steal <video>". creativecommons.org. The Greens-Eurpean Free Alliance. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  7. ↑ thejuicemedia (2017-01-24), Australia Day (Piracy parody), retrieved 2018-06-17
  8. ↑ "This Video Compares Australian Settlement To 9/11, Hiroshima And The Holocaust". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
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