Captain Copyright Targets Kids

frank249 writes "The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency has set up a copyright education website called Captain Copyright. There is a section for kids with comic books and a section for teachers for grades 1-3, 3-6 and 6-8. An example of a grade 1 class activity: 'Present the following situation to students: Your friend is downloading a song off the Internet. In comes Captain Copyright. Ask: What do you think Captain Copyright will say? Encourage students to brainstorm. Then hand out (or read) Line Master: Some Copyright Laws.' In Canadian law it is incorrect to download a song unless you pay for it. They also neglect to mention that Canadians pay a tax on blank media that is meant to compensate artists for downloads."

Comments

For the kids.

[grub]

We have a daughter due in July (really! I'm reproducing now...) In a few years I imagine she'll ask "Daddy... who's Captain Copyright?" and I'll say "Sweetie, he's like God." She'll reply "What do you mean, Daddy, all knowing, all powerful and something to be in awe of?" "No dear," I'll reply, "a make-believe thing people in power use against the masses to keep them scared."

Re:For the kids.

[Tackhead]

> In a few years I imagine she'll ask "Daddy... who's Captain Copyright?" and I'll say "Sweetie, he's like God." She'll reply "What do you mean, Daddy, all knowing, all powerful and something to be in awe of?" "No dear," I'll reply, "a make-believe thing people in power use against the masses to keep them scared."

Close, but no cigar.

"Captain Copyright? I remember that site! It was where a bunch of Farkers and SA Forum Goons downloaded a huge library of source images for the funniest set Photoshop parodies ever!"

Logo faux-pas

[Beniamino]

Boing Boing helpfully points out (SFW) the similarity between the Captain Copyright logo and Slashdot regular goatse.cx (which I will not link).

Infringing?

[lexDysic]

As pointed out on Boing Boing, Captain Copyright is apparently blessed with the power of copyright immunity. Text on his website appears to be directly lifted from Wikipedia, and of course much of the iconography has been around since before the Captain himself. Maybe the Captain's alter ego is a pirate? Arrrrrr...

--
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton

Re:Infringing?

[chrispl]

Not to mention the goatse.

Re:Orwell Anyone? Or Godwin???

[Minwee]

"And when did 'hitler' become a lower-case adjective?"

When he failed to defend his trademark and it became generic. "Escalator", "Yo-yo", "Shredded Wheat", and now "Hitler" are prime examples of trademarks which have fallen into the public domain through abandonment or poor defense.

Where Hitler went wrong was not through lack of defense (you should have seen his army of lawyers), but through misuse of the Hitler trademark. Where Third Reich productions threw around the name Hitler as though it were a noun they should have used it as an adjective from the start and emphasized it to set it apart from the surrounding text. Using phrases like "Hitler conquered half of Europe" is just asking for trouble. "Hitler® brand World Domination conquered half of Europe" makes it clear what the brand name is and that it is a registered trademark.

Copyrights Do Expire, Don't They

[buckhead_buddy]

The copyright on a number of songs first graders might still find entertaining have expired. Things like:

• Old McDonald
• I've Been Working on the Railroad
• 99 Bottles of Beverage on the Wall
• Ring Around the Rosie
• She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain
• and many, many more

Yes, the performances of the songs may be copyrighted, but even that isn't a certainty. There is a Public Domain into which the performing artist may release their performance.

If the tune, lyrics, and performance aren't protected intellectual property then the first grader should call the police and have Captain Copyright arrested for child molestation. Okay, there wasn't any sexual molestation involved, but a man in a skin tight costume who constantly barges in on first graders in their homes will have a very difficult time convincing a jury of that fact.

But is it going to be more effective than

[Goonie]

Don't Copy That Floppy :)

Based on a Fallacy

[czarangelus]

The best part is it's based on a fallacy to begin with. In the comic, the school bully comes, steals his artwork, and begins selling copies for a quarter in front of the teacher's lounge. In the case of file sharing, no money changes hands! What a bunch of horse crap.