Xerox has used âtrademark awarenessâ advertisements to prevent the brand from becoming a generic noun or verb, including such statements as âYou canât make a Xerox.â[162] However, it is used in India and Russia as a generic word for âphotocopyâ. In Brazilian Portuguese, xerocar, or less frequently xerocopiar, is a common verb for âto make a photocopyâ.
List of generic and genericized trademarks - Wikipedia
When I was a kid Xerox was a verb. It meant to make copies. Mimeograph, telecopier, thermal printed â it didnât matter. People said Xerox. Stopped in the mid to late 90s.
More like a sad statement on the quality of our education system.
The deponent had to be playing games trying not to answer a clearly asked question. I highly doubt it was because he only knew the photocopy machine as a xerox machine.
itâs definitely one of those ânot sure if trolling or stupidâ situations, especially given how the actor/director presented it (which I liked.) But IRL? oh yeah, I bet he was trolling.
But thatâs the great thing about depositions, itâs hard to actually prove another persons knowledge. âI did not have sex with her.â and âI have no memory of the events you describeâ are more famous examples that leap to mind.
Legal Context (from Lowering the Bar):
County is allowed by law charge â$2/photocopyâ for copying records. County translates âper photocopyâ to âper fileâ for computer records and charges $100K for burning a CD. Suit is brought. Lawyer is trying to get county guy to admit that he knows darn well that a computer isnât what the law, or any common language, means when it refers to a âphotocopyâ machine.
While Iâm remiss to ever underestimate the power of stupidâŚi got the feeling that he was coached by his council to not answer to or use the specific term âphotocopierâ, and he was at a loss as to how to answer such a direct question without doing so.
Of course, it is always possible that this is just awesome stupid rearing its head, I imagine proving the difference would be difficult and frustrating.
also, on a more relevant noteâŚ
would the photocopier be legal if invented today? likely not. it is a device that enables âpiratesâ to easily âstealâ copyrighted works, by copying the pages of books and magazines. That is how out of perspective the political lobbies of the media corporations have managed to push things.
likewise when cassette tapes and vcrâs were invented they were created so that you could make and own a copy of any audio or video. all modern devices of a similar nature are very careful to couch their intended purpose in delayed viewing, they are time delay viewing mechanisms.
quite sad really.
I used to do legal transcriptions for a living. I have a real strong suspicion that this guy isnât pig-ignorant or trolling for fun. Heâs playing a legal game, probably on the advice of his lawyer. Iâve heard shorter and far less awesome examples of this kind of bizarre behavior first-hand, and Iâve transcribed entire cassettes full of nothing but people discussing, say, what exactly constitutes a âcurb stompingâ. 
Great seeing John Ennis again, loved him on Mr. Show. Nobody does âirateâ in a business suit better. Nobody.
Wouldnât an entire CD be 1 copy? (a disc is akin to a page that you can fit lots and lots and lots of words on) I bet they hit the copy or burn button only once, unless that CD has more burn sessions then allowed by the Red Book standard. Either way, whomever received the CD could check the number of burn sessions and determine how many distinct times data was copied to the disc.
That probably makes Xerox lawyers cringe. IIRC they fought for awhile to make their brand name remain a brand name, and not turn into the generic term for photocopying.
So check this out. In 2011, Boing Boing posted about the deposition this is based on.
I saw that post, and told my wife. She thought it would make great theatre.
Three years later, she directed a short piece based on this deposition, using the text verbatim except for changing the gender of one of the characters, and one or two other tiny things. It was performed just a few weeks ago (March 28/29/30 in Freehold Theatreâs Studio Series (see THE DEPOSITION OF LAWRENCE PATTERSON here)). It was great!
Barely one month later, this film comes out. Weird.
that is awesome! (I liked so much a mere like would not suffice!)
This is delightfully well acted.
Actually it IS a somewhat undefined term, as most âphotocopiersâ are no longer a âCopierâ but a scanner and printer linked. The software can and will change the document on the fly, and are not a true copy, but a reinterpretation.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/xerox_copier_flaw_means_dodgy_numbers_and_dangerous_designs/
The link above is a accidental change, but given the Snowden information, I wonder not if, but how many âcopiersâ are infected by NSA and disseminated bad documents and/or sending them to NSA Headquarters.
I think youâve discovered the reason for the lawsuit.
Actually, itâs even worse. It wasnât $2 per file, but rather $2 per page. So if a single PDF had forty pages, they would charge $80 for it.
Hence the lawsuit.
