I’d like you to take a trip back with me to the early 1990’s -- a time when the high tech industry was exploding with new and innovative hardware and software in the form of business applications, games, and much more.  Unfortunately, with these new innovations came rampant copyright violations.  Adults and kids were beginning to copy software, almost without thinking about it.  Some were doing so knowingly.  While others were simply not aware that their actions were illegal.

As any good trade association would do, SIIA (then known as SPA, the Software Publishers Association) jumped in and took immediate action.  We decided to embark on a broad education campaign to enlighten the public at large – particularly focusing on school kids.  Our message was simple – to teach kids the importance of copyright protection as a means for encouraging innovation and creativity and the dangers of software piracy.

The result of our efforts was the VERY popular video called “Don’t Copy That Floppy!”  

The video was a huge success in the schools in the 90’s.  Year after year, the video – along with the copyright lesson plans – were used by thousands of teachers across the country to educate their students to respect copyright and to not copy software illegally

Now, lets fast-forward to 2009.  Floppies are long gone.  SPA is now SIIA.  And people generally know much more about copyright -- thanks in large part to the likes of Napster, YouTube and John Doe lawsuits brought by the recording industry.

But, as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  The high-tech industry continues to explode with new and innovative hardware and software in the form of business applications and games.  And, just like in the 90’s, if not more so, copyright violations continue to be rampant.  In fact, today it’s not just software that’s being pirated.  It’s music, movies and, of course, digital content (like newspaper and magazine articles, books, and test materials).

Even though floppies no longer exist and the video is very outdated, it continues to be as popular as ever.  You can find groups devoted to the video on facebook, discussion groups and various websites (where you can even buy your very own "DCTF thong!).  There are close to 100 versions of the video posted on YouTube. When you search for the video on Google you get tens of thousands of hits.  Perhaps, most importantly, despite being quite outdated, Don’t Copy That Floppy continues to be shown to students throughout the country.

Even now – 17 years after it was first launched --  the Don’t Copy That Floppy video is easily the most successful and most popular copyright educational video of all time.  If you don’t believe me just ask yourself – when was the last time someone actually copied a floppy. (insert laugh track here).

So, 17 years after we first released the original Don’t Copy That Floppy, after being swamped with requests, we have decided to make a sequel, aptly named Don’t Copy That Too (DCT2).  Even though the video won't be released until next month you can check out a preview of the new video.