Tech-Ed Funding to be Tied to Copyright-Ed?

feminazi writes "Ars Technica is reporting that California Assemblyman Ed Chavez has proposed legislation that would require recipients of an educational technology grant program to educate their students in copyright law as well. There are three areas of education that would be required: 'ethical behavior in regards to the use of information technology,' 'the concept, purpose, and significance of a copyright,' and 'the implications of illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing.'"

Comments

Re:Don't Copy That Floppy!

[mgabrys_sf]

Wow - there's a piece of 90's pop-culture that hasn't really aged well in the slightest:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4837609090 332617729

I think educating people on copyright is fine as long as it's mentioned that copyright in the US it's under the control of one knee-jerk company protecting a cartoon of a rat. If that's brought into the equation - then educate their brains out.

Re:Broken

[Anonymous Coward]

legally, a movie is, generally speaking, the property of Some Entity Not You.

Actually, no. The studio may own copies of the movie, and may hold copyrights (artificial monopolies) on it. But the content of a published movie is not property. It is speech.

As Thomas Jefferson put it, property is a social invention whose purpose is to prevent conflict over items that are naturally scarce (like houses). Where there is no natural scarcity, where conflicts over possession can be avoided by simply making copies, there is no need to introduce a concept of property.

Thus, U.S. copyright is not a recognition of any sort of natural property rights in works. It is an (optional) incentive.

Public Education & the Rule Of Law

[eyeb1]

i was born a free and sovereign being ..

i never granted anyone authority over my life and being ..

i don't require anyone granting me rights and privileges ..

and i never agreed to play by anyone's rules ..

but the vast majority of people ..

who have gone through the state controlled education system (mass brain washing) and grown up being influenced by a corporate controlled media (propaganda machine) ..

are not likely to know or remember this fact..

the vast majority of beings are/have accepted a "Social" world based on competition and control VS cooperation and empowerment ..

the rule of law and political party based democracy (limited dictatorships) .. so often espoused these days .. is a very convenient system for controlling natural beings .. by those in a privileged position of power.. haven't you noticed how the vast majority of politicians are either lawyers .. doctors .. or accountants ..

oh! .. forgive me .. their education makes them qualified and gives them the "right" to rule over my life ..

John Taylor Gatto - Challenging the Myths of Modern Schooling
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/

The Underground History of American Education
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm

some relevant .. though still to limiting links:

How I Clobberd Every Bureaucratic Cash-Confiscatory Agency Known To Man- Mary Croft
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/law/Mary.htm

Natural person - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_person

Paradigm
http://www.naturalperson.com/

Natural Persons
http://naturalpersons.org/

the only comforting fact in my life .. is knowing that it is destined to fail miserably and most likely with a catastrophic result .. though it maybe with a whimper do to a lack of atmospheric oxygen ..

Just took an IT ethics class

[jafac]

Entitled "Ethics in the Information Age" at University of Maryland (UMUC)

The text books for this class were
Case Studies in Information Technology Ethics (second edition) by Richard A Spinello, published by Prentice Hall.
Ethics in Information Technology by George Reynolds published by Thompson.

This class was anything but a "anti download" brainwashing session.
Most of it focussed on the kinds of issues we developers and engineers have to contend with in terms of protecting the privacy of customer data, product liability, international/cross-cultural issues, and things like that.

The course started with an overview of how to do an Ethical Analysis of a situation, then we discussed case studies for the rest of the term, and wrote opinions, etc. I think it was a very valuable experience, and I think that all IT professionals should, indeed, take this class.

Yes, we did talk about software piracy, and other forms of copyright/patent violation. By and large, the mood of the class in analyzing these issues was that yes, illegal copying is wrong, but not as wrong relative to say, stealing a car or killing someone. Mainly, I think we learned that making unauthorized copies of software in a professional capacity is especially bad (even if it's for charity) mainly because you're exposing a broader group of stakeholders (ie. your employers, their stockholders, etc) to the liability. It was really an interesting and enlightening class, and it make me think about some things I never thought about before.