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In 2004, the online piracy epidemic was becoming more serious for the movie industry, largely due to the spectacular growth of bandwidth-efficient torrent sites.

This concern was recognized by the Motion Picture Association (MPA[A]) and its renowned CEO, Jack Valenti, who had been in charge of the Hollywood group since 1966.

“If we don’t react promptly to an ascending curve of illegal uploading and downloading soon to be reinforced with dazzling speeds rising from file-trafficking networks, we will live with an intense regret,” Valenti said in June 2004.

Valenti’s warning came two weeks before his official retirement. As the founding father of the MPA’s anti-piracy division, he saw a combination of increased enforcement, new legislation, and public awareness campaigns as the key to tackling the piracy scourge.

You Wouldn’t Steal a Car

These words were put into action as the MPA worked on an aggressive educational campaign. At the ShoWest industry conference, held in Las Vegas in March 2004, attendees were shown a preview of two new PSAs that equated movie piracy to other types of stealing.

The now-iconic “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” PSA was created under the MPA’s wings, but the group never promoted it publicly through its main website. Via various international partners, however, the PSA soon became a global phenomenon.

“You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” PSA

As far as we know, the first public mention dates back to July 12, when the Industry Trust for IP Awareness launched a broad campaign at the piracyisacrime.com website. This effort was partly funded by the main Hollywood studios, including MPA members.

The “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” PSA wasn’t just featured by the UK campaign, it also inspired its name and logo.

Piracyisacrime.com

The MPA obviously didn’t mind the global exposure. In fact, a few days after the UK launch, the MPA teamed up with Singapore’s Intellectual Property Office to share the “you wouldn’t steal” mantra there as well.

Who Created the PSA?

While the MPA’s role is clear from historical documents, neatly preserved by the invaluable Internet Archive, the true origins of the campaign always remained a mystery. None of the public announcements mention who created the iconic PSA. That is, until two French journalists dove into it.

Nicolas Delage and Christophe Wilson embarked on a two-year investigation that they summarize in a YouTube video. Ironically, even the MPA seemed to have forgotten that the PSA idea originated at an MPA meeting, as they pointed to the UK anti-piracy group FACT instead.

The French journalists persevered nonetheless. They discovered that the PSA was filmed at the Paramount backlot in Los Angeles, and after numerous inquiries, they eventually learned that Warner Bros. was behind the production. They spoke to several people who were involved, including creative director Ricky Mintz.

“When we made that video, I thought it would play in theaters for a week, maybe. In a million years, I never would have imagined it would end up on almost every DVD in the 2000s. Until my kids told me, I had no idea,” Mintz recalls in the video.

Ricky Mintz (from the video)

Speaking with TorrentFreak, journalist Nicolas Delage says that he and Christophe reached out to over 70 people during their investigation. Many people declined to talk, and those who did could often only fill in some of the blanks.

“The studios and the MPA were such large organizations that no one really seemed to know who was responsible for what, which made things a lot more complicated when we started digging for specific information.”

“For the team at Warner Bros. in charge of producing it, it was apparently just a quick gig between two movie trailers,” Nicolas says.

The documentary includes many more intriguing details that we won’t spoil here, and it is a must-watch for those who are interested in the history of the iconic PSA. The journalists deserve all the credit for finding many missing pieces of the puzzle, which greatly help to update the historical record.

The ‘Stolen’ Font Controversy

There is one key element in the video for which we would like to provide some additional context. This relates to allegations that surfaced earlier this year, which suggested that the piracyisacrime.com website used a ‘copied’ font in their campaign PDF material.

The French journalists note in the video that “piracyisacrime.com has nothing to do with the Piracy It’s a Crime ad” and that the PSA had “zero connection” with piracyisacrime.com. That’s a bit of an overstatement.

While piracyisacrime.com was not involved in the creation of the PSA, it did promote the video in its campaign material and hosted the videos, with permission from the MPA. This makes sense, as the UK website was funded by MPA members through the Industry Trust for IP Awareness.

From the piracyisacrime.com campaign PDF

As we mentioned in our earlier coverage on the font controversy, there is no evidence that the PSA video itself used the ‘copied’ font, so in that sense the creators are not “connected” to these allegations.

More History, To be Continued

Needless to say, after more than two decades, the “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” PSA continues to intrigue. Or should we say the “Downloader” PSA, which was the official title for the online piracy ad, as mentioned by the French journalists.

While researching the various claims for this article, we stumbled upon a form from the movie theater organization NATO (now Cinema United), where members could order copies of the PSA to show before films. This form confirms the “Downloader” name and also lists the name of the counterfeit DVD version: “Street Vendor“.

NATO’s order form

The same document, published in August 2004, also confirms that the MPA provided these videos, offering theaters the option to order a DVD if they had trouble accessing the copies online.

It appears that there are still plenty of intriguing details to uncover about the iconic PSA. The French journalists realize this too. At the end of their video, they tease a follow-up about the PSA’s music. This will likely cover the debunked claim that the music was “pirated”, a certain Prodigy track, and much more.

We’re looking forward to it already.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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