Slashdot Mirror
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."
something to the effect of The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of the government in the next. This seems a good way for organizations to get laws changed in their favor.
I have no
It's not just for your parents anymore! :P
Error 407 - No creative sig found
BSA Asks Kids to Name Copyright Weasel
At least they choose the right animal. Has anyone heard when SCO will be letting us name their skunk mascot?
As the article says:
;)
The ferret, by the way, does seem to be an odd mascot choice for an organization devoted to strict legal adherence, given that the weasel-like mammals are outlawed in California and several other states.
Anyway, were I in 4th grade, I'd submit "nibbler."
You know. In honor of the old copy/backup programs often called "nibblers" frmo the C64/Apple2 days. Since they nibbled the disk bit-by-bit to make exact copies. And like ferrets.
Get it?
everything in moderation
This is bad because... ?
Kids, make sure to copyright your entries!
This comment does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the author.
While I will teach my child what *I* believe is right and wrong, we can hope that the children of parents that are not quite as diligent see thru this garbage.
Perhaps with a bit of luck this attempt at brainwashing will totally backfire.
Home schooling becomes more appealing each day.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
While I'm all for respecting copyrights and all that intellectual property stuff, I find it strangely difficult to accept moral lessons from the BSA.
I suppose they'll be joining the ranks of MTV, musicians, and video games in the world of raising YOUR children.
Parents -- please take responsibility for your children. Please?
Too easy.
John Ashcroft
How about Captain Copyright?
See how the dauntless Captain Copyright sells out its friend to the BSA for talking about copying software.
Laught when Captain Copyright battles with the fearsom Product Pirates (and see how they get locked up for 30 years for running an illegal copy of Windows XP).
Be fascinated how Captian Copyright bribes and lobbies the Congress to introduce capital punishment for product theft.
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
If this program has any success like the Just Say No program did in the 1980s, then we should be seeing an entire generation of copyright violators in, oh, 20-30 years.
Raw raw brainwashing backfires.
So how long until the kids are 'taught' to turn in their parents "to help them"?
Gotta love my tax dollars supporting this tripe.
let's remember that there's nothing wrong with protecting the copyright.
the problem lies in the fact that copyrights seem to be indefinite. we need to cut them down, not cut them out.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Ah yes. That's just too appropriate. Weasels are the snakes of the mammal family. (Yeah, it's not proper taxonomic jargon. So sue me.) Always sneaking around behind other animals' backs, and fighting like holy hell whenever they get cornered. Oh, and weasels particularly like to eat young things.
Heck, just the fact that they've picked a weasel is funny enough for me. Could they possibly have picked a WORSE animal mascot? Maybe the cockroach...
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
Seriously, though, I'm not sure where the joke ends and the reality begins. They're going to have an animal mascot to teach kids about their (the BSA's) view of copyright? It works for breakfast cereal ("They're gRRRRRRReat!") so I guess it will work for getting kids to rat out their friends for mod-chipping an x-box.
However, they seem to be forgetting something from their school years - NOBODY likes a snitch. Most of the kids who have x-boxes or similar consoles at home are keenly aware of how the price of a game compares to their weekly allowance, and their reaction to seeing a chipped console would most likely be "cool, where can I get one, too?"
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
what's bad is that the BSD mostly acts as a terroristic organisation which mostly intimidates people into upgrading M$ products ...
I must have missed the part where BSD [sic] flew jetliners into skyscrapers and killed thousands of people. Or all the videotapes where they behead people who didn't upgrade to the newest version of MSOffice.
Why is it that everyone seems to feel the need to compare the boogeyman of their choice to terrorists these days?
The problem is not that they are teaching legality, they are twisting the law to their own view.
Such as trying to convince children that its a criminal act to download ANY music file.
Problem is that its a CIVIL issue, ( at least for now, unless Hollings gets his way.. then it will be criminal ) and 2ndly its not illegal to download *copyrighted*material. Its illegal to download material that isn't permitted for distribution in that manner..
Its also legally debatable that its even illegal to download restricted data.. Remember fair use, libraries, copying excerpts.. etc.
Its also NOT the job of some industry to come and teach students. Even if I were to accept the concept of what they were trying to portray, its the SCHOOLS job to teach facts, not some company. ( and its parents job to teach morality ).
---- Booth was a patriot ----
A Cyber-Ethics Champion Code with items such as
Why? First of all, use of the mark is now optional, at least in the U.S. Second, the mark itself doesn't explain to the child (or anyone else) whether or not a program may be copied (e.g., GPL'd software is copyrighted). The license does. Which leads us to...
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?
I guess the problem I have with all this is, there's currently a lot of controversy surrounding free software, copyright, patents, and other "intellectual property" issues, and if we're not prepared to educate our children about the issues, we shouldn't allow the "voice of the world's commercial software industry" to do it for us, any more than we allow McDonald's to educate our children about nutrition. Oh, wait...
To reinforce to the kids about how copyright works in the real world, the weasel's name should be...
Mickey Mouse.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Because pushing an issue on school children, trying to form their opinions at a young age, on behalf of CORPORATIONS, smacks of manipulation and self-rightousness.
Because the BSA is a blackmailing, self-interested money hungry group of lawyers which strongarms small businesses into "compliance", trying to bluff business owners into thinking they are guilty until proven innocent.
Because controversial issues that are not directly related to education or universally accepted understandings of right and wrong have no place in the public education system.
I wouldn't have the BSA forcefeeding my kids their garbage anymore than I'd invite PETA in the classroom. Either way, God willing that we can afford it, I'm not sending my kids anywhere near a public classroom if and when the day comes.
---
WARNING:Slashdot karma not redeemable in the afterlife.
Show me what has been stolen if I copy a song I was not going to pay for regardless? You cant. We are not discussing taking a product from a store, or from someone's house. It is an abstract concept, and it wasn't 'stolen'. No one has been deprived of the use of anything. Nor has a profit been made off others 'work'. ( I realize people DO sell pirated copies, and I agree in that sort of situation it IS wrong, but that isn't the type of copying I'm discussing. )
For the record, anything I have downloaded that I liked I have donated $ to the artist.. But that doesn't negate the fact that NOTHING WAS STOLEN..
And I don't want to hear some excuse that ' its the law '. Not all laws make sense or are justifiable. ( those I refuse to follow. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Call me a hopeless optimist... But, unless both the parents and those schools are doing absolutely nothing outside of brain washing those kids...
Remember the "Red Menace" of the 50's-80's? We've all seen the films they used to show kids in schools, and the information from parents, wasn't far from brainwashing the kids to hate anyone who didn't live under a Democratic Government.
Need a more current example? Just replace communist with "Terrorist"
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
I dont mind the power company coming in with Larry the Lightning Bolt teaching kids to leave power lines and other nasty power stuff alone. But for a business such as this which tends to threaten businesses without a shred of proof then sue them if they refuse guilty or not should not be allowed into our schools to pitch their views on copyright.
It's the responsibility of eduacators to bring this topic up in the classroom. Explain what a copyright is and explain some of the history of it. It's up to the kids to decide if it's the right thing not some corporate sponsored entity telling our kids that copyrights are fine. All it does is breed a group of kids that will not challenge the system and sit around all day thinking certain laws are okay when in fact they may not be so perfect.
This set in wheels in motion to have those segragation laws declared unconstitutional in the USA.
It is your moral duty to refuse to obey laws that you know are simply wrong and immoral. It's called "civil disobedience" and has has a pretty decent track history of causing positive change without too much bloodshed.
PS: Note that I'm not specifically saying that this mp3 downloading ruckus falls in that category. I'm just saying that your affirmation that all laws need to be obeyed is just not right.
You've gotta love living in a country where teaching 4th graders morality will put you in front of a judge, but where it's apparently OK to indocrinate children with the corrupt money-mongering copyrighting system. Breach of copyright, now there's a sin we need to teach our children to avoid. But don't you dare teach them about chastity or good moral living.
Sorry, I just get upset with the priorities of this country sometimes.
An interesting sidebar to this whole story is that the way that both sides want to call the similar looking animal:
The RIAA wants to say "ferret" because that word is also defined as a verb that means to search for something in a group of others.
The anti-RIAA forces wants to say "weasel" because that word when used as an adjective means a person that is dishonest and/or greedy.
That's a sign of a bad PR person somewhere at the RIAA. No matter how cute the positive association is, you shouldn't put out a PR campaign with a mascot that easy to mock.
Do you own a Tivo or a VCR? Ever fastforward through commercials? Thief! You're depriving those poor advertisers of their hard-earned dollars!
Just because something is illegal (or unlawful, as is the case in CIVIL matters like these) does not make it wrong, and while there is definitely good reason to ensure that musicians continue to receive compensation, this issue is NOT as cut and dry as the Morality Police would have us belief. Taken to the extreme, beliefs like yours would outlaw all libraries because they take away money from authors and publishers.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the purpose of a school mascott, aimed at kids, to teach them important values? Loyalty, Devotion, Friendship, Thinking for themselves. Nah, kids these days will trade in all of those for some monopolist propoganda, uh I mean "comic", of some weasel telling them to rat out their friends for inovating so they can get next weeks exciting issue on how infringing copyrights can send you to hell. At least they chose an appropriate mascott. Looks like its time to get out the D-Con. --Copyrighted monopolys stiffle inovation. th!nk differently
How long until we get some new slogans from the BSA... I've got some really effective ones lined up:
- Pirating music causes lung cancer
- Copying videos will harm your unborn child
- Stealing music harms others
Stopped everyone from smoking didn't it?
Attached to the article is a lovely little game called Deep Freeze, and Christ almighty is it hard.
The point of the game is that you're supposed to use Rat Bastard (As I'm now referring to the Weasel) to kick a ball to destroy Pirates (Represented by a Skull and Crossbones) and Software (Represented by a CD. Note that I said software, not illegal software, just plain software. Interesting...) all while collecting Licenses to protect your city.
Ah, yes, you're asking the same question I was, "Protect it from what?" Quickly, you will learn the answer, to protect your fair city from being "frozen" by software piracy. The game is ridiculouslyhard and as far as I played it, is impossible to win. I can only assume that this is by design to show kids how hard it is to "defend" against the deluge of pirated software.
Man, does anyone else feel like they're in some kind of really weird, fucked up movie with a bad plot everytime they read this absolutly insane software piracy shit? Seriously, it seems like I'm inside of some horrible plot hole whenever I read the BSA is working in conjunction with Weekly Reader (Which I remember from back when I was in school) in order to indoctrinate 4th graders to believe software piracy is some sort of scourge of the Universe. Back when I read Weekly Reader, it had stuff about all kinds of exotic animals, something about space, or just anything else kids thought was really cool. Now it teaches them about Copyright laws?
What the fuck? This country really needs to get its shit back together. I love America, but I fear for our future when corporations can have the power to set ciriculum, especially for such young, impressionable kids like this.
Request: ECM unit, 1000 km fullerene cable, 1 tactical nuclear weapon. Reason: Birthday party for foreign dignitary.
Yes! Someone must propose this. Justify it as some sort of weak acronym that seems so popular these days, such as:
...or some such crap. Who on /. has a kid in the right age range they don't mind using as a political tool?
Defending All Righteous Licenses
1984.
If we lived in a society of Just, Sensible, Minimal laws it would probably be pretty nice.
I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
Apologies!? You've just violated copyrights! Be proud, you'll be one of the first to meet the weasel.
Class Action Lawsuit.
:)
Wait. I am not one who enjoys frivolous lawsuits or believes in them (in fact, I think we should have the same system as in several Eurpoean countries: the loser pays the winners lawyer fees and court costs) BUT I firmly believe that if my child was in a public school where they were going to let in the BSA to "teach" my children morality on copyright issues I would approach the school board with simple facts:
1) I pay taxes for my children to go to school to be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think
2) Corporations blatantly "teaching" a one-sided version of "morality" for crass consumerism have no place in public schools (and I'm almost sure there is a bylaw or code that keeps corporations from doing just that)
3) It is MY responsibility as a parent (and yours, and his, and hers, etc) to teach children morality based on MY (and yours, and his, and hers, etc) belief system - not based on the BSA's.
With all these things in mind, I would simply tell the school board where my child was in class that I would be finding the MANY other parents who believed along the same lines as I did and we would be pulling our children out of school and forming a class action lawsuit against the school board (as a whole), each individual member of the school board, the principal of the school where the BSA was to "teach", and - if necessary - the STATE school board as well. I'm sure having 20% or more of the parents from one county (or parish) starting a class action lawsuit against the state and local school board would get a) severe media attention and b) the elected officals attention.
What better way to nip this in the bud than to use the legal system against the "rat bastard" BSA... and I'd be teaching my child the meaning of Irony at the same time
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~