"Copy" is a very strange short film because there really is enough plot here to make a full-length picture. I think MGM was simply using it to test out its sound equipment, as they were the last major studio to switch to sound in the US and in 1929 they were STILL making some silents.
The picture stars Roscoe Karns as City Editor Mack, a tough guy who knows how to turn a word to make a sensational story. His latest crusade is the local excursion boats...he's looked into them and they are floating hazards. However, before he can publish his exposé, the owner of the boats comes to the office to threaten him to back off. Only moments later, disaster strikes...one of the boats sinks and kills at least 500 people...and two of them might just be Mack's wife and daughter!
As I said, it comes off like a full-length movie...perhaps a B- movie. Karns is very good in this and only a few years later, Lee Tracy would make his mark playing folks exactly like this...hard- bitten newspaper men who talk a mile a minute.