Technology has come a long way over the last few decades. Screeching computer modems have come and gone, fax machines collect dust in storage closets and kids today don’t know what a Walkman is. But surely, everyone still remembers photocopiers, right? You know, that clunky office machine that takes one piece of paper and then makes an exact replica of the contents of that page onto a second piece of paper?
In 2010, Cuyahoga County, Ohio was sued for its practice of charging $2 per page for “photocopying a document,” even when said public documents were handed over in digital form on CD. Creating each CD cost the county 31 cents, but it was charging the people who requested them an average of $5,000 each.
In a deposition for the case, a witness who worked in the Cuyahoga County Recorder’s Office computer department went to great lengths purporting not to understand the common meaning of the term “photocopier” as a means of defending the overcharge. The testimony is so credulity-stretching that the New York Times recreated word-for-word in the video below, “Verbatim: What is a Photocopier?”
If you have a few free moments, What is a Photocopier? is definitely worth a watch. I guarantee it’s the most entertaining, dramatic testimony you’ll ever hear about photocopiers. (Or as us in the younger generation know it, the Xerox.)
[Photocopier via Shutterstock]
From Danielle on May 01, 2014 :: 10:29 am
That last second of a turn made me laugh so hard, I could stop. Great moment! Fabulous acting! But historically funny transcript! :-D
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