Protecting Copyrights Around The Campfire?

from the deja-vu dept

We always fear the worst when the film industry tries to "educate" children. A few years ago, they tried to brainwash school kids on the evils of file sharing. Apparently, that program hasn't had much success, as students saw through the transparent and one-sided "lessons" they were being taught. Now in Hong Kong, the Motion Picture Association is flipping this strategy around with nicer-sounding program: They have created an Intellectual Property merit badge for Boy Scouts to impress upon these kids the "value of intellectual property and of the importance of protecting it." We don't know the details of the program, but expect it to present similarly slanted messages of its earlier classroom effort (sharing equals stealing) with a new spin (not sharing equals protecting copyrights). So rather than saying outright that file sharing is bad, their new tactic is to say *not* file sharing is good. The difference is subtle, disingenuous, and potentially dangerous. Maybe the MPA learned from the recording industry's ham-handed attempts to force the Girl Scouts to pay royalties on campfire sing-alongs. The Boy Scouts should only be so lucky.

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