# Don't Copy That Floppy!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733
**Category:** The Game Room
**Created:** [October 27, 2008, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733 "2008-10-27T07:10:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/1 "2008-10-27T07:10:58Z")
An [anti-piracy ad](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xfqkdh5Js4&feature=related) from 1992.
A great example of early nineties corporate-ized pop culture. (Which is why I debated whether to put it here or in CS instead.)
-FrL-
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/2 "2008-10-27T07:13:06Z")
Clicking on your link, I can see the debate still rages…
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### Author:  [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/3 "2008-10-27T07:15:39Z")
Fixed!
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### Author:  [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/4 "2008-10-27T07:19:30Z")
Ha, just watching the opening, one is struck with the sense that that actor has (or had) never played a computer game in his life.
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### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/5 "2008-10-27T07:26:40Z")
Wow, that goes on forever. Was this shown on TV or in classrooms or what?
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/6 "2008-10-27T09:35:57Z")
I remember seeing that a few months ago. I can honestly say I haven’t copied any floppies since.
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### Author:  [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/7 "2008-10-27T10:19:57Z")
> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> I remember seeing that a few months ago. I can honestly say I haven’t copied any floppies since.
I just actually had to bend down and check to see whether I even still have a floppy drive… Turns out I do!
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### Author:  [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/8 "2008-10-27T10:43:19Z")
But I don’t, so I couldn’t copy a floppy even if I wanted to.
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### Author:  [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/9 "2008-10-27T11:18:38Z")
Wouldn’t any game thats on a school computer be either shareware or pirated. I cant see the school buying and installing games.
Floppies still have a purpose, they are the easiest way to update your BIOS.
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### Author:  [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/10 "2008-10-27T11:18:52Z")
> [@Illuminati Primus](#):
>
> ```
> But I don't, so I couldn't copy a floppy even if I wanted to.
>
> ```
Well then, the Terrorists must have won. Because when floppies are outlawed, only outlaws will have floppies.
Trying to figure out what that says about my Mac.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/11 "2008-10-27T11:34:13Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#):
>
> But I don’t, so I couldn’t copy a floppy even if I wanted to.
Okay, then don’t wheely that CD.
Hmm… I think the slogan needs work…
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### Author:  [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/12 "2008-10-27T11:40:52Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#):
>
> Wouldn’t any game thats on a school computer be either shareware or pirated. I cant see the school buying and installing games.
My elementary school had a lot of games–of an ostensibly educational nature–on its computers.
-FrL-
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### Author:  [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/13 "2008-10-27T12:01:30Z")
The Software Publishers’ Association used “Don’t Copy That Floppy” as an anti-piracy slogan for years after this. I recall a number of PSAs on television which had that line in them. (However, they were pretty much straightfoward, seriously-done PSAs, and did not involve rapping men who live inside computers.)
“The more you take, the less there will be
The disks become fewer, the games fall away
The screen starts to shrink and then it will fade
Programs fall through a black hole in space”
Apparently, it takes away your rhyming ability, too, since none of those phrases rhyme!
I’m intrigued by the fact that Pixar is credited at the end for providing software. Before they became a big motion picture studio, Pixar actually did sell computer-animation software.
And perhaps the ultimate irony of all, “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.” I get what they’re trying to do here, spread the message so people know. But after spending nine minutes or so rapping about how you shouldn’t steal things since people spent a lot of time making them and deserve to be compensated for their hard work, they just go ahead and take the exact opposite position with the PSA itself! Not that anyone would probably make a lot of money off that thing, but it’s certainly a mixed message.
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### Author:  [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/14 "2008-10-27T14:36:01Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#):
>
> Okay, then don’t wheely that CD.
>
> Hmm… I think the slogan needs work…
Well, I don’t do that either. 🙂
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/15 "2008-10-27T20:47:22Z")
Was that from the 90s?
Kid with “mushroom” haircut with the “ledge” - check
Big hoop earings - check
New jack sucka’ doing the Running Man dance - check
VGA monitor - check
I think I had Janet Hunter Senior Programmers plaid J Crew shirt in college.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/16 "2008-10-27T22:05:58Z")
What’s up with the naked butt at 1:11?
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2008, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/17 "2008-10-27T22:12:58Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#):
>
> Okay, then don’t wheely that CD.
>
> Hmm… I think the slogan needs work…
Don’t freebie that CD?
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### Author:  [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/18 "2008-10-28T12:37:24Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#):
>
> Okay, then don’t wheely that CD.
>
> Hmm… I think the slogan needs work…
I think that one is outdated, as well. All of my pirated crap goes on DVDs these days. 😃
I like the part of the video where the guy talks about how major applications can have _twenty or thirty_ people working on them. :eek: Fifteen years later, it takes ten minutes for all the credits from GTA IV to finish scrolling past!
e: For the future: Don’t copaaayy that Blue Raaaay.
No?
Damn.
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### Author:  [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/19 "2008-10-28T15:08:44Z")
Don’t burn the blue?
Don’t rip the ray?
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### Author:  [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-copy-that-floppy/469733/20 "2008-10-28T15:38:04Z")
> [@neutron\_star](#):
>
> e: For the future: Don’t copaaayy that Blue Raaaay.
>
> No?
>
> Damn.
Don’t give away a blue ray?