Have you noticed the intro screens on DVDs? They’re funny if you think about it.
The first one is the, “Don’t copy this or we will sue you and send you to jail.” Then you see it in French and sometimes Spanish. And other times, you see the fancy “FBI Antipiracy Emblem” and a bunch of legalese warning you that you could be executed (joking) for copying the disk.
The second screen is “Please don’t sue is because we didn’t actually approve the commentary that might be included on this disk. And since we didn’t approve it, you can’t sue us.” Of course, the language is much more awkward than that, although that is the gist of it.
We all eagerly wait (usually pressing the next button on the remote) because we have all seen the screens way too many times. So I wonder–why can’t they have a five second blip that says something like:
“This disk is copyrighted and may contain comments that are not approved by the studio. Click play if you want to see the full legal information.”
This way, the studios cover their bases but we (the DVD viewing population) don’t have to sit through that same awful message every time we place a disk in the player.
And I also wonder how stupid our society is that we have to put warning labels on speech. “We didn’t approve this comment, so don’t sue us” is a sad indictment on the lack of reason that permeates our “enlightened” society.