K.T.C. (Warning Screen)

Screen (Late 1990s-Early 2000s)
Visuals: On a black background, the following text is shown below, with all but the final 2 sentences being aligned to the left:

Arial

After that a second screen appears, consisting of the word "Arial" and a countdown starting at 15. When it gets to 1, it cuts to black.

Trivia: The K.T.C. substance on the tape does not exist, as proven in the Oddity Archive episode "Copy Protection Vol. 2".

Technique: Computer effects.

Audio: A male announcer reads the text, but his voice is sped up to the point where he sounds like John Moschitta Jr. (a.k.a. "The Micro Machines Man" and Blurr from Transformers: The Movie). He says "Stop recording now" with a pause between each word.

Audio Variant: On Ms. Finicky's Cat Adventure Video Vol. 1, the warning is silent.

Availability: Seen on a few VHS tapes released by Publisher's Choice Video and D.I.N "Do It Now" Inc., such as Cat Sitter, Dog Sitter, and Ms. Finicky's Cat Adventure Video Vol. 1. It may or may not be on some other tapes. According to this 2004 forum post, it also appears on a DVD version of Cat Sitter, oddly enough.

Legacy: One of the finest examples of fearmongering. Although it says that "K.T.C." is "activated" when one begins recording on a VCR, that makes no sense, because if one were to actually copy the tape onto another with two VCRs, the record mode would only be activated on the VCR dubbing the tape to a blank one, not on the one that is playing the tape. That, and not only would it be very costly to manufacture tapes with this "substance" coated on a single part of the program, it'd also probably result in lawsuits over the distributor knowingly releasing a videotape that purposely destroys a VCR.