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British Schoolkids Get Copyright Education

Posted by michael on from the don't-coupy-that-flouppy dept.

Krafty Koder writes "The Register reports that British school children will be indoctrinated in copyright law , in a scheme backed by the music industry, as part of the government sponsored Music Manifesto initiative. In response, kuro5hin have posted an open letter on this issue." The U.S. has its own version.

10 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. If it happesn by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If this ever happens in the US to my little brother, I will be sure to educate him, and provide him with PLENTY of insightful questions and comments about the motives behind this "education" the TRUTH about copyright laws, and some wonderful facts about the industries pushing this.

    I think it would be great if someone made a list of such things that we could xerox and pass out to all the students so they can be PROPERLY educated.

    --
    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  2. Do we really want corporate America influencing... by Techie2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Our educational system? Sure copyright is an issue that is controversial, and piracy is a problem, however I don't think that it is a good idea for corporations to be the ones funding this type of thing. It compromises the educational integrity of dealing with the subject subjectively from both sides. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future someone gets suspended for wearing a "bit torrent" t-shirt on anti-piracy day or something...

    --
    "And I'm right. I'm always right, but in this case I'm just a bit more right than I usually am." - Linus Torvalds
  3. Only the Begining.... by The+Great+Hamster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now lets hope that they are going to just teach just copyright laws.... and not why its a happy idea to have logging software on your computer to "prevent" copyright infringements...

    --
    .Hack//* Owns me.
  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. Re:woohoo.. by Frizzle+Fry · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The government is using the fact that students are a captive audience in order to push its political agenda? It's nice that a large new group of people is now getting to experience the same sort of disgust that many of us have already felt for years toward the DARE program. Welcome.

    --
    I'd rather be lucky than good.
  6. Right and Wrong by Lewis+Daggart · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A class is not going to teach right and wrong. You know right and wrong. You dont care about someone elses version of right and wrong, you have your own. And whether you choose to do what they consider wrong or what you consiter wrong anyway isn't going to be decided in an ethics class.

    Business owners that engage in shady deals aren't sociopaths- they know that what they're doing is 'wrong'. They simply don't care. Business Ethics classes won't give a criminal a bleeding heart and convert him to charitable donations.

    Likewise, teaching copyright law wont do a convert evil file sharers into saints. If a person believes its wrong, they'll either do it anyway or they wont. If they believe its alright and the laws are screwed up, they'll likewise do it anyway or they wont.

    The only good you could hope to get from classes teaching copyright law, sponsered by the music industry, is to scare kids into compliance at an early age. Make sure they understand that sharing a single MP3 in this day and age could potentially screw them over more than say, unprotected sex or smoking.

    The class isnt there to teach people to be more 'moral'. It's to scare them into complacence. It's to get it into their heads that this is the LAW, so that from this point on, noone will question it just as noone questions cigarette taxes (another societal evil that no one questions because smoking's undesirable and it doesn't affect the nonsmokers that voted for it).

  7. Re:As a record store owner. by bigberk · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Your holier-than-thou attitude is realy condescending
    I didn't mean to be condescending, I'm just suggesting that music might be not as worth buying as it used to be. Just because marketers force feed template-generated pop music down kids' throats every chance they get, and there's a knee jerk reaction from the 'consumers' that looks like "buying interest"... perhaps in fact the audience tires of the product after a single purchase. Because I really don't think kids are as stupid as marketers hope they are, and there are way more entertaining things to do with an afternoon then listen to Unremarkable Band XYZ.
  8. Scary times... by Yaa+101 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When you realize that when students for instance use the wikipedia, which is a rich source of knowledge, are flunked because their teacher refuses to accept any other source than the "official" recources.

    I wonder what would stop a company as Microsoft changing information to make it spin their way just because their Encarta is being seen by the Microsoft sponsored teacher as the only "official" source?

    I use Microsoft only as a well known example but essentially you can fill in any corporate name here...

    The quest next century will be who's info is been seen as a truthfull reference to things.
    Same goes for blogs, which are only very clever marketing tools to spin desinformation towards the badly informed masses.

    1. Re:Scary times... by DunbarTheInept · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In the case of Wikipedia, it's a good idea to disallow it as a trustable source. A Wikipedia entry is only as trustable as the most recent person who edited it. And there are people out there who sabotage information on Wikipedia, replacing it with lies suited to their own agenda. Granted, those sorts of things do get fixed by others who maintain the page and go check it after it's updated, but they only check it after a window of time has passed - a window in which you might be looking at the page.

      Wikipedia is a useful source for casual browsing, but it is not a trustable one because any crackpot can edit it and his edites appear *immediately* before anyone else even looks at them for review.

      Plus there can be the "common knowlege" versus "accurate knowlege" problem, in fields where most people are mistaken about something. (And if you don't think that's a problem, consider the effectiveness of "Organic food" slogans like "grown without using chemicals"...
      Really... without chemicals....Wow that's impressive - so none of the matter in your topsoil was formed into molecules at all?)

      --

      Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.

  9. Re:Key word in there... by GoCoGi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Using the word friend loosely, everyone who is not your friend is your enemy. Therefore, everyone is either your enemy or your friend. Introducing the moral rule "Love your enemies as if they were your friends", "Sharing with your friends" implies "Sharing with your enemies". Combining these two statements you get "Sharing with everyone". Therefore if "Sharing with your friends" is ok, then "Sharing with everyone" must be ok, too.