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Fair Use Computer Game

Posted by michael on from the knowing-is-half-the-battle dept.

mpawlo writes "As reported by Greplaw, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) together with Privacyactivism has released an interactive video game designed to educate players about their privacy and fair use rights. The game is focused on digital rights management technologies, online spyware, and data profiling servers. We have seen similar games in Sweden from the Anti-piracy Bureau and Flash movies from BSA in the US, however striking a different tune. Play Carabella." Cute idea.

16 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. damn... by Em+Emalb · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Carabella is a modern girl. She's hip. She's wired."...and she's got huge jugs, so the /. crew should love it! wohoo! Bring on the large pixelated breasts!

    Of course, sex sells, so go for it EFF!

    If you like the game....donate.

    --
    Sent from your iPad.
    1. Re:damn... by oever · · Score: 3, Funny

      Of course, sex sells, so go for it EFF!

      I like the slogan:

      Carabella warez me out

      --
      DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
    2. Re:damn... by gentix · · Score: 3, Funny

      "...and she's got huge jugs, so the /. crew should love it! wohoo! Bring on the large pixelated breasts!"

      *sigh*...

      I guess some people really only look at a girl's breasts...

      I mean... have you seen that blue face?
      Or that purple hair?
      Would you really want to have sex with a smurf?

      tsk tsk...

  2. Tinsel Town Club by Hal+Roberts · · Score: 3, Informative

    Also check out http://action.eff.org/tinseltown/.

  3. great by tps12 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This "game" seems all too reminiscent of the kind of "edutainment" that the War on Drugs has been pumping out. If parents want their children to love liberty, then they should teach them about it when the children are old enough to understand. Trying to brainwash them with video games will work until they're 15, at which point they'll run away from home, become pot-addicted prostitutes, and join the Christian Coalition.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
    1. Re:great by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Shouldn't children be taught to make up their own minds...

      Up to a certain age (actual age determined by "maturity" level), most children don't really want to make up their own minds - they want their parents/guardians to tell them what's wrong & right. That gives them a moral base which they can incrementally adjust as they get more life experience.

      It's not too hard to imagine a kid raised by someone who _really_ let the kid "make up his/her own mind". The term "spoiled brat" comes to mind.

  4. Lessons learned by juliao · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Having played the game, here is what I learned:

    Don't look for music online, unless you're willing to obtain it illegally.

    The best place to legally buy music is still a record shop.

    Import albums give you more rights than most US releases.

    Summing it up, if you want your rights back, stay offline and move abroad.

    --

    free the mallocs!

    1. Re:Lessons learned by skotte · · Score: 5, Insightful

      yeah, thats what i got too. i 'played' all branches of possibility (i'm bored, wot of it?) and the highest 'scaore' i got was fFrom buying the CD in store. a point to not take lightly kids.

      maybe this will get trolled down., but here's my viewpoint: if you like a band, go buy their fFriggin CD. i have a couple fFriends who insist it is a poliical stance to buy or not buy, and will give some lengthy debate on which CDs should be purchased. but they tend tomiss the one big point. you arent just lining the pockets of the RIAA. you are supporting somehing you like. you are paying the guy behind the counter (who is probably just a fFinancially instable kid like you).

      plus, as our girl carabella fFound out, P2P is time consuming! so it's not really fFree, is it?

      ok, i'm done. don't [troll] me, please.

    2. Re:Lessons learned by Enry · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But the first batch of protected CDs were from outside the US. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

    3. Re:Lessons learned by Erasmus+Darwin · · Score: 4, Insightful
      "Don't look for music online, unless you're willing to obtain it illegally."

      Call me crazy, but I was under the impression that just as you can find both legally and illegally distributed software online and just as you can find both legally and illegally distributed books online, you can find both legally and illegally distributed music online.

      Mp3.com comes to mind as a place where you can download legally distributed music for free. Emusic.com appears to be legally distributing mp3s for a fee.

      I'm sure the music traded on venues such as Kazaa or IRC is more likely to be illegally distributed, but to characterize all online music as being illegal is absurd.

  5. The Game.. by dcavens · · Score: 5, Insightful
    First off, it's a pretty sad game. Basically propaganda.

    Would anyone actually 'play' this who wasn't interested already to know the entire content of the game?

    Content of the Game:
    • Buying CDs allows you to have fair use rights.
    • Buying Copyrighted CDs takes away those rights.
    • Downloading MP3s preserves those rights, but may involve copyright violations.
    • Kazaa is not very nice.


    That's about the extent of the game.

    Why not just send out a press release?

  6. you can't get 100% by xQx · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's impossable.
    If you use any of their listed p2p networks you pirate music and loose privacy.
    If you subscribe you don't get your mp3 player working.
    If you go out and buy the non-copyprotected CD, you loose money, thus points.

    That game sucks. ... Did I mention flash was evil? :)

    Still, It's good to raise awareness. See if I can head off a few "snowball fight" emails by replying with a url to this page and a "if you forward it to 10 people in the next 20 mins something funny will pop up on your screen. I don't know how" message. That should inform the people in need :)

    1. Re:you can't get 100% by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 5, Funny

      A strange game. The only way to win is not to play. How about a nice mp3 from an independant artist's web site?

  7. Can anyone post a walkthrough? by Bollie · · Score: 5, Funny

    I didn't get full score...

    Does anyone know a cheat for this game?

    BTW, I'm also looking for the No-CD patch...

    Oh yes, and my dog ate my serial number. Can anyone help me?

    Thanks!

    (Parody of posts that usually go up on forums as soon as a game is released... Guess it won't be happening here! Trust the EFF to take all those kinds of fun away...)

  8. Thanks for the recommendations - NOT by Spackler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, I go to the site.
    Play the game
    It tells me I should surf anonymously.
    I try the privacy.net page to see what I leave behind.
    I go to the recommended www.anonymizer.com.
    Put in the privicy.net page to check what they really do:

    -------------
    This Page is available with an Aonymizer subscription

    WHY IS THE PAGE UNAVAILABLE
    The Anonymizer Free Trial version restricts access to some web sites in order to keep the service working quickly and efficiently, without overloading.

    Sites most often restricted include gaming, casino, adult, career, and web email sites. Other sites may be restricted at random as well.

    Our Full Version premium service DOES NOT restrict access to any pages, costs less than $5 per month, and has many more features than the free version. Sign up now!
    ---------------
    So, in order to check out what they are trying to sell me, I need to subscribe?

    On to the next (rewebber):
    ---------------
    WELCOME TO REWEBBER!
    You are a registered user of our regular service? Please press the button

    You do not have a valid Rewebber account yet? We are very pleased about your interest and give you the option to test our service for free.
    Please register for your test account
    ---------------
    Registering REQUIRES an email account that they will send a testing password to (sure, mail accounts are easy to come by, but it is kind of a bother to just have a look at the results.

    NEXT: http://www.multiproxy.org

    No Data. This is a site that appears to exist to sell ads to you in the most annoying way they can. It's a freeware thing you load and appears to - damn, another ad floated in and blocked that part of the page.

    Next: www.inetprivacy.com
    35 bucks. Although it says you can download from a broken link.

    ---------------

    Overall, pretty bad results from the EFF recommended way of surfing without leaving a trail.

    Spackler

    PS: I ran these from IE (hence the floating ads that I had not seen in a while). Man, this is how people surfed before Mozilla?

  9. Buy at Concert? by Matthew+Weigel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Go to a concert, enjoy the artist, buy the album right there. The CDs can be cheaper, they provide instant gratification, they are anonymous with cash (and mostly, they don't accept credit card), and generally more money goes to the artist because of the fewer middle men.

    Oh yeah, and you get to go to a concert, which is usually a better experience than just listening to the CD. Unless it's one of these bands/people that didn't start off playing clubs and such, but jumped into a studio....

    Live music is where you get the most entertainment, and the artist gets the most money.

    --
    --Matthew