The campaign given its soft-start the month prior, the British Phonographic industry trade group under the 
chairmanship of Christopher Wright began placing its slogan in the press on this day in 1981, believing that the rise in the availability and popularity of the cassette and recorder would cause a precipitous decline in record sales—recruiting a few celebrity spokespeople to support their initiative against the new media, like the Boomtown Rats and Elton John. Others, like Bow Wow Wow, the Dead Kennedys, Devo and Sonic Youth actively encouraged the practise, some releasing titles with blank b-sides for the buyer to record whatever they wished. The propaganda and rhetoric (often subject to parody over the manufactured hysteria) have re-appeared numerous times as an invective against VCRs, “Don’t Copy that Floppy,” and file-sharing even for art and entertainment that’s meant for public enjoyment and made more robust by its channels of propagation and retention.
one year ago: assorted links to revisit plus Makhno’s Movement (1920)
two years ago: an AI take on traditional wedding gifts
three years ago: an Italo Pop nonsense song meant to sound like English plus St Josaphat
four years ago: a font inspired by Trump’s handwriting, VR for happier cows, St James Intercisus plus a Monkees’ movie
five years ago: CARE packages, the collaboration between Stan Lee and Pablo Ferro, another Trump Dump plus Misinformation as Word of the Year
