Kids Game Takes Aim At Music Pirates

Thanks to the San Jose Mercury News for reprinting a report about an educational videogame company who've decided to theme their next title around music piracy. According to the piece, the developers, MGI, who are not being funded by the RIAA or any other music industry groups, "...had set out to create a game about the yo-ho-ho kind of pirates. But when [MGI] started researching the topic of piracy, they were overwhelmed with information about music copyrights." An official press release on the MGI site reveals: "Loosely based on the Treasure Island story, this new PC game will... caricature music piracy, embodied especially in the figure of Captain Bootleg." The nefarious Captain Bootleg has run off with the 'Music Treasure', and "...a young boy named Ma, top agent of the Funny Bureau of Investigations ('FBI'), who... carries a laptop, must find the Island and recover the Music Treasure."

Comments

Prepare to have your buckles swashed

[Decaffeinated Jedi]

So, they're going to associate music piracy with actual "yo-ho-ho-and-a-bottle-of-rum" piracy in this post-Pirates of the Caribbean era, and they expect kids not to think that it's even cooler than they already do? Sounds a bit counter-intuitive to me...

75% right

[swaminstar]

The $$ side of things has to be understood as does the culture of industrial music (no, not fun ole Front 242 either) that exists from LA. When you appreciate music, or anything for that matter, I would hope that that appreciation manifests in support of those that brought you that experience. When you buy a CD the only way that you give is with your hard earned $$. Fine. That money, however, doesn't go to those that make those luvly sounds that (ostensibly) prompted you to buy that disc...the cash begins it's long and withering path back to LA executives, ad agencies, and the multi-headed hydras of corperations (those that really told you what you would listen to giving you say 3 new rap, 5 new girl pop, 1 punka, 2 country, 2 boyband choices this week...and you get to feel sooooo special likeing choice #X crap flavor of the month). A sane system promotes giving thanks, $$, attention to artists as they produce the music live and sell their music locally. Guess what? the sound engineers and recording studios still get $$$ from the bands...the live board techs still get $$$ from the proliferation of new diverse live shows...the record industry people get to have fun new jobs (presumably in the motion picture industy where it actually does take millions to produce their product) and the amount of nation-wide acts plummets while the number of local acts being appreciated in the towns where they live increases. So hurrah to the theifs of sound! As long as they give back to the bands that actually make the noise. This system (post napster, kazaaaaaaa, etc) actually works in towns like Austin, TX, Madison, WI, NYC, Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR etc... where there is a healthy appreciation for live music and LOCAL music. Remember the music industry has taken away our choices as consumers and restricted production for new acts...they are no friends of sound. LISTEN LOCAL, DRINK LOCAL, EAT LOCAL and travel often