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."

Comments

Re:OK, I'll ask the question

[lothar97]

This is bad because... ?

The BSA's favorite method is sending out threat letters to small-mid sized businesses, and warning about the dire consequences of having pirated software. The place I work got one, and the boss freaked out- especially since 1 Office 2000 CD had been used for all 6 computers in the office. The letter basically said we had 1 month to take care of any abuses, and if they caught us after that with illegal stuff, there would be hell to pay (since we were on notice).

I got some nice OEM copies to make us legit, but they never showed up. I heard a bunch of people throughout our area got these letters (San Diego), and I didn't really hear about anyone getting busted.

Also, do you like the idea of your kids being trained to rat out their peers? Always be a snitch? How far does it go... Should we also have them snitch on Mommy & Daddy?

Don't Copy That Floppy

[empaler]

Reminds me of the ~15 yr old campaign "Don't Copy That Floppy", with a rap song and dance and everything. It was way cooler than this half-arsed shite... ^_^

16 mb "Don't Copy That Floppy"

Re:OK, I'll ask the question

[the_mad_poster]

It's not a matter of open source, it's a matter of a corporation using the public education system to indoctrinate people. I have similar beefs with Subway, Coca Cola, etc. - all of whom have encroached on my old High School in the name of hooking kids on their brand early. There's a particular marketing term for the practice of impressing a brand on people before they're old enough to make decisions (so they later decide on that brand), but I don't recall it at the moment.

The BSA has a specific agenda that they most certainly will benefit from financially if they can impress it on kids early on and make it stick. If they were only teaching the facts about copyright laws or providing those materials that do so, that's fine. However, this reaks of marketing and promotion, not education. That doesn't belong in a public school. If they think that copyright laws need to receive more focus, they can go to school board meetings like everyone else.

As far as emacs - emacs is the one true editor!!! .... oops... sorry, wrong discussion ;)

I don't think learning about the GNU - if it was relevant to the class - would be bad, but RMS is not the best person to be teaching it. The nice thing is, since it's OSS, you could always take that out. I'm not a particularly big fan of RMS, and I only use the GPL when I have no intention of using the code I write commercially...