What is Piracy, It's a Crime?

It is an anti-piracy PSA from the Motion Picture Association that ran on DVDs and in cinemas from 2004, best known for comparing digital piracy to physical theft and inspiring the "You wouldn't download a car" parody.

What does Piracy, It's a Crime mean?

The PSA's argument that downloading a film equals stealing a car or a purse struck viewers as absurd, so the phrase now reads as shorthand for over-the-top corporate anti-piracy rhetoric.

How do you use Piracy, It's a Crime?

The common format is a demotivational-style image reading "You wouldn't [verb] a [noun]," typically pairing an impossible or trivial download such as a car with mock-serious PSA typography.

Is Piracy, It's a Crime still popular?

It sits as a classic 2000s reference that is still cited whenever anti-piracy campaigns come up, with the "download a car" line lodged in the wider vocabulary of internet jokes about copyright.

Piracy, It's a Crime

Q: Where did Piracy, It's a Crime come from?

The 45-second spot was launched on July 27, 2004 in Singapore as a joint initiative between the Motion Picture Association and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, then folded into DVD opening sequences worldwide.

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Published September 22, 2026

"Piracy, It's a Crime" is an anti-piracy PSA launched by the Motion Picture Association in 2004 that ran as an unskippable segment on DVDs worldwide. Its heavy-handed comparison of movie piracy to stealing cars, purses and TVs backfired, spawning the enduring "You wouldn't download a car" parody format that outlived the campaign itself.

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Overview

The original 45-second spot cycles through shots of theft, a car, a purse, a TV, before landing on a young girl downloading a pirated film, with hard-cut text warning that piracy is a crime1. The mismatch between physical theft and clicking a download link struck viewers as absurd, and by the late 2000s the spot was widely mocked online4.

The parody format hinges on a "You wouldn't [verb] a [noun]" template, most famously "You wouldn't download a car," typically styled as mock demotivational posters using the PSA's block typography4. Users swap in impossible or trivial downloads such as houses, dinosaurs, or bagels. The joke works because the ad tried to shame viewers into compliance and instead handed them a reusable template for mocking rightsholders.

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Origin & Background

Platform

Cinema and DVDs (source), Reddit (viral parody spread)

Date

2004

The campaign was formally launched on July 27, 2004 in Singapore as a joint project between the Motion Picture Association and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS). Senior Minister for State Ho Peng Kee unveiled the 45-second trailer at the Arts House in former Parliament House, with cinemas scheduled to begin screening the spot on July 291. Distributors then folded the trailer into DVD releases as an unskippable opening segment, giving it forced exposure to millions of home viewers. YouTube user avril134 uploaded a copy of the spot on May 4, 2006, giving it one of its earliest circulating homes online3. The MPA commissioned the campaign; the parody format that grew around it was built by anonymous internet users, with Reddit user augreeko as the earliest widely documented poster of the "download a car" edit4.

How It Spread

Written mockery started as early as April 4, 2006, when the WordPress blog "It Just Is" argued that comparing car theft to film piracy was rhetorically dishonest4. YouTube parodies followed: roboslobproductions posted "Piracy Parody Ad" on February 3, 20075, and BoredAtHomeProductions uploaded "Piracy – It Be a Crime" on August 21, 2008, in which a costumed teen commits assorted petty theft6.

The "download a car" line took over as the meme's public face on April 13, 2009, when Redditor augreeko posted a photoshopped slide to r/funny reading "You wouldn't download a car" over a demotivational border captioned "Fuck You / I would if I could," pulling more than 1,000 upvotes4. Yahoo Answers user Ryann Newman asked "How do I download a car?" in September 2011, drawing the reply "You forget sir, the RIAA has no grasp of reality"7. On November 8, 2012, r/gaming user leica_boss posted a screenshot of a racing game menu offering to "download car," pulling over 9,500 upvotes within a month4.

The campaign also drew a real-world scandal. In December 2011, TorrentFreak reported that Dutch composer Melchior Rietveldt had written music for a similar anti-piracy spot in 2006 that was then attached to tens of millions of DVDs without his permission or royalties, with his advisor estimating at least 1 million euros in lost income2.

Timeline

2004-07-27

IPOS and the Motion Picture Association launch the 45-second anti-piracy trailer at the Arts House in Singapore.

2006-05-04

YouTube user avril134 uploads a copy of the PSA, one of the earliest online mirrors.

2007-02-03

YouTuber roboslobproductions posts the "Piracy Parody Ad" spoof.

2008-08-21

BoredAtHomeProductions uploads "Piracy – It Be a Crime," featuring a costumed teen stealing objects.

2009-04-13

Redditor augreeko posts the "You wouldn't download a car" demotivational photoshop to r/funny.

2011-09-18

Yahoo Answers user Ryann Newman asks "How do I download a car?" seeding a widely reshared exchange.

2011-12-01

TorrentFreak reports the Melchior Rietveldt royalty scandal tied to a related anti-piracy spot.

2012-11-08

Redditor leica_boss posts a racing game screenshot offering to "download car" to r/gaming, pulling 9,500+ upvotes.

Piracy, It's a Crime

Overview

Gallery

Origin & Background

How It Spread

Frequently Asked Questions

References (7)