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BSA Asks Kids to Name Copyright Weasel
theodp writes "According to CNET News, this fall, 4th-graders will not only be treated to comic books and lesson plans from the Business Software Alliance and Weekly Reader, but also invited to name the BSA's mascot, a copyright-crusading ferret who teaches tech-savvy kids about the importance of protecting and respecting copyrighted works such as software, music, games and movies. More details in the BSA press release."
Because that ferret is destined to go on a long dark journey!
Let's name him Darl!
Right is wrong when left is right.
Gosh, it sure reminds me of good ol' Frank Burns from M*A*S*H! Take THAT, Ferret Face!
Jory
Fucktard, the copyright weasel.
Don't Crease the Weasel!
First of all, he looks like a rip-off of everyone else's favourite corporate cartoon character: Poochy. So "Snitchy" feels right.
May I be one of hopefully many in saying WTF?? How is the BSA allowed to even infiltrate our PUBLIC school system, I mean what goes on at these meetings
BSA REP: "We will give you enough money to buy 10 more computers if you let us brainwash the kids"
Director of school: "I'm not sure thats a good idea, have you ever read 1984?"
BSA REP: "Of course I have, I'll make it 11 computers and I won't let RIAA charge you for illegal music downloads"
Director of school: "But i havn't downloaded any illegal music"
BSA REP: "Thats what they all say!"
Hey kids be a weasel and turn in your friends for downloading music!
A Weasle mascot to represent an industry full of them. Funny.
For a second, when I read the title, I thought it meant the BSA was asking children to rat on their friends... Glad to hear it's just brainwashing!
Because there are a lot more important things that kids should be spending time on in school.
Like food fights.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
I can't think of a better name than Hilary.
Do not touch -Willie
Howabout "Orrin the Ass-Burrowing Money Weasel"? It's got a nice ring to it. You gotta admit.
blog |
A rodent that tends to smell like shit and is uncannily prone to getting rabies. Things like this are why I don't believe in coincidences anymore....
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
Linux: Chubby, randy penguin. A rather inoffensive critter.
BSA: A maniacally-grinning weasel.
I wanna see all the logos that will be sure to come up involving Python and everybody's least-favorite weasel.
May we never see th
I thought SCO's mascot was Stinky the Dung Beetle?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Satan?
Juares. Spelt W A R E Z.
Rock on!
You know it's only a small step from writing a network stack to putting bombs on busses!
BSA guy #2: So he's proactive, huh?
BSA guy #1: Oh, God, yes. We're talking about a totally outrageous paradigm.
BSA guy #3: Excuse me, but "proactive" and "paradigm"? Aren't these just buzzwords that dumb people use to sound important? Not that I'm accusing you of anything like that. [pause] I'm fired, aren't I?
BSA guy #4: Oh, yes.
Apologies to The Simpsons...
That's ok, didn't you hear? It's dying...
-dameron
How is the GNU mascot supposed to compete with the aptly selected weasel? A weasel is much more fun to play with.
I guess we have to lauch a counter movement, and tellthem to share and share alike. We'll then see which culture benefits better and improves faster.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Good I'm not the only insane one on Slashdot then...first thing that came to mind when I heard of the copyright weasel was the Sexual Harassment Panda....uggggh....
...in bed
Hey! Leave me out of this!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Than Lemmiwinks.
After all, god knows the BSA's going to try to jam it up our asses anyways.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
Scene: 4th grade Sally singing happy birthday in a public place. Copyright weasel jumps out. CWeasel: You owe me $19.95 for that! Cough it up. Sally: But I was just singing... CWeasel procedes to mull little Sally's face, turn her upside down & shake money out of her dress pockets. CWeasel: "And don't let me catch you doing it again."
Smokey the Ferrett says 'Only you can prevent copyright fire^H^H^H^Hinfringement, kids'
pumps out thousands of "Copywrite Krusader" stuffed counterfeits. Look for them on a street corner near you.
Now THAT would be hilarious.
And on a more important note, a Ferret, what the hell? A friend of mine has two of these fuzzy things and one thing the BSA and Ferrets have in common is both want to get into your pants.
"Not to mention, keeping wildlife...an amphibious rodent...for domestic purposes...inside the city limits. That ain't legal either"
...mandatory Simpsons reference?
"Weaseling out of things is important to learn! It's what separates us from the animals! 'Cept the weasel." --Homer
I just laughed. ALL my production software is open source.
That being said, this threat is serious to most businesses, and I have to help many customers get into compliance. All the more reason to use open source.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
I just find the URL incredibly distrubing:
http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/eat/willie.html
Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfuly glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. I know it's true because the weasel told me so!
Name this beast after the Congresscritter most thoroughly owned and operated by the RIAA and MPAA! I'm sure he's also owned and operated by the BSA as well, or at least sympathetic to their cause.
The species change would not only make it a better rhyming name, but one would have to do it because ferrets are still illegal in California. (and Hawaii, and the 5 boroughs of New York City, NY)
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
So the assumption is that a child young enough to be attracted to the weasel-ferret-whatever mascot will read and understand the license agreements included with his or her software? Perhaps the BSA wants to donate to some sort of fund for early legal education?
Looks like you uncovered the secret strategy behind all this...they want to raise an entire generation of lawyers!
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Drugs Are Really Excellent.
:)
N.B. a cop told me that one
--- There isn't any problem that can't be solved by a small, low yield nuclear device, is there??
Mod me down. I think you deserve to be sued if you rip off music.
I agree entirely, let's start with suing P. Diddy for ripping off everyone else's music.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Didn't they "pirate" that acronym from the Boy Scouts of America?
That's my entry.
It can be a female, right? Well I propose the name Susan. Or just Sue, for short. ;)
Quisling is the only possible name for this weasel.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
I've got a name for him ...
But I can't say it in front of kids.
Except that if you say it outloud, you'll be arrested for being a terrorist.
Well if you use drugs you are funding terrorist organizations, that much is for sure. One of the wisest things Bush ever said was "The day you stop doing drugs, is the day you join the War against Terror."
What's more kids nowadays understand this. In 30 years time, far from thinking that the War on Drugs was a bad idea, the self indulgent baby boomers will be dead, and their drug taking funding of terrorist organizations will be a thing of the past. Taking drugs will be seen as a really bad (not to mention un-patriotic) idea, just like trepanation or blood-letting.
"I hate to answer my own posts but you MUST download this and this!"
I think we all know what kind of effect that posts like this have on people's bandwidth issues. If you have any compassion or empathy for your fellow man, and the target of your post is the MPAA, RIAA, SCO, or the BSA PLEASE try to get these things to the front page. When the BSA servers start a fire that burns down their empire... and a daycare next door, but don't sweat the small stuff... you will know you made a difference. Don't you owe it to yourself?
My Blog
I also helped a customer past a BSAA audit threat (got the notice mid-afternoon, got inspected mid the following morning) by counting their holo stickers and hastily Linuxifying some of their generic workstations to make up the difference, and slapping the OpenOffice.org suite (and Mozilla for good measure) on all of the machines.
:-) and the allegedly technical dude shoving a diagnostic CD into the reception machine, which was at the time running Mandrake Linux (I think 9.2) and XPDE and - after a few minutes - asking where "My Computer" was so he could run the nice diagnostics.
Highlights of the visit were the BSAA dudes (local agents, I think, rather than BSAA proper) trying hard not to ask why nobody was using MS-Office (they eventually broke down and asked, I told them it was because it helped to avoid licence hassles like this one - IRL everyone was ostentatiously using OOo and Mozilla not MSO and MSIE because they'd been told to for that day
IIRC, we'd renamed the XPDE equivalent "Not Bill's Computer". Said dude's look of disbelief upon being appraised of the truth was worth framing; it took the Mandrake Control Centre to half-convince him. I don't think he was ever quite sure.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
No, Drugs Are Really Expensive.
Saw it on a t-shirt this summer.
Anyone who posts about bad moderation are themselves off-topic and should be moderated accordingly.
> One of the wisest things Bush ever said was "The day you stop doing drugs, is the day you join the War against Terror."
Was that when Bush joined the war against terror? When he stopped hoovering coke, I mean.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
hey, why not? After all, a cartoon character camel/human cross-breed in a leather jacket and jeans got them to smoke, right.
Oh, wait...
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
I guess their work on Lenny the Lamprey fell through?
weasel-like mammals are outlawed in California and several other states
You what ??!??!?!
I know that Californians are sliding off into the Pacific but how one earth do you outlaw animals ?
No but, yeah but, no but...
of course you realize you shouldn't be linking to that pirated video, since the original is still available for sale
What are you, a fucking park ranger now?
No, No, NO!
The guy was hopped up on P2P! It's way worse than PCP!
It's like any addiction. First it's only ROMS. Then a DV rip here or there. Then suddenly you find yourself one night in front of the computer with a box of tissues and a bottle of jerkens downloading "VixenBrittenyGoats.ex.mpg". Before long the street starts to notice as soon as your car pulls into the driveway, their internet connection come to a grinding halt as you consume a whole 57% of the regions available bandwidth. As you walk down the street you hear them cluth their ugly blue pleather purses just a bit tighter as they glace at you with those little beedy old lady eyes and whisper "I hear he's on that P-2-P stuff".
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
now, my Firefox downloads list shows "young_girl.mpg" *delete*