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Verbatim: What Is a Photocopier? | Op-Docs

New York Times Opinion · 3.1M views · 2014-04-28 · 7:10

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Overview

A New York Times Op-Docs short in which actors perform a real legal deposition transcript. A lawyer gets tangled in an absurd argument with a county employee about what counts as a photocopier, in a dispute over fees for public records.

On Hacker News

Commenters share it as a funny, memorable example of evasive depositions and of obstruction over public records requests.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2017–2025

Topics

Law, policing & justiceDocumentaries & storytellingSatire & parody
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depositionpublic recordsdramatizationlegal absurditynyt op-docs

What people said

vel0city · 2025-11 · Recommendation

I'm reminded of the case of a recorder's office in Ohio charging $2 per page for copies of public documents. NYTimes made a funny dramatization of a transcript from that case, pretty good. What Is a Photocopier? [VIDEO]

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philsnow · 2025-03 · Recommendation

> Over time, the meaning of the word 'Xerox' changed. More specifically, it gained a new meaning. For a long time, Xerox only referred to a company named in 1961. Some time in the late 60s, it started to be used as a verb, and as I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, the word 'Xerox' was overwhelmingly used in its verb form. [VIDEO] I don't think this dramatization (of a court proceedings from 2010) is related to Xerox's plight with losing their trademark, but said dramatization is brilliant nonetheless

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wodenokoto · 2021-11 · Recommendation

There is a similar story about an office worker not knowing what a photocopy machine is. The New York Times did an amazing reenactment from transcripts of the legal deposition [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by New York Times Opinion, played through YouTube.

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