You know the Warning. You've seen it 5000 times and you'll see it 5000 times more if you're a good consumer. It's virtually impossible to watch a movie on DVD or VHS without J. Edgar's Boys first putting a gun to your head. Then come the threats from Interpol, first in English, then French -- which almost nobody can read. In fact, nobody reads anything anymore. That's why they rented a goddamn movie in the first place.
Next comes some intimidation via the corporate logos. Paramount. Universal. Tremendous mountains in all their purple majesty, or the vastness of the galaxy, or something else jaw-droppingly, tremendously large, and all of it carrying the same message: We are big. You are small. We have the power. You have zilch. We own everything, and you're behind on your payments.
The warning includes "infringement without monetary gain," meaning, if you make a back-up copy of Legally Blond 2 for yourself (and your own horrendous taste), it's "punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000." Holy hell! I'd call that incentive to make a lot of monetary gain; and since it caps at a quarter million, you'd wanna make about twice that, pay the fine, and enjoy your wealth... after five years.
Think Bin Laden would still be still be at large if somebody reported him selling bootlegs of Rocky IV from the trunk of his Pontiac? No sir! But now I'm kinda wondering... does that copyright warning include absolutely everything on the disc or tape? Including the warning itself? The one I just copied, and posted above?
Oh shit.
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