Slashdot Mirror
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."
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."
Trolling is a art,
I can see that copyright law is clearly a priority for early education. Not grammar, or mathematics, but intellectual property and coporate interests. I guess all the top execs of the tobacco companies jumped ship to the recording industry so they can keep practicing their "hook 'em while they're young" campaigns.
Must. Restrain. Laughter. I think even small children are smart enough to realize that "Captain Copyright" is an idiotic idea. Kids don't respect educational cartoon role models in general; I see no reason why "Captain Copyright" will be any different. A generic super-hero with boring powers whose opponents are ordinary people instead of super-villains ... no one is going to find that interesting.
Philosophy.
d) Report your friend to the police, collect a bonus check from the RIAA, and watch him spend the rest of his life paying off $1,000,000 in RIAA lawsuits.
OK, so maybe it won't quite be worded that way, but probably something along those lines. Do we really need the RIAA et al creating comic books that encourage kids to report on their friends? What's next, reporting that your neighbour is possibly harbouring an arabic man in his attic (substitute arabic for jewish and step back about half a century, you'll see my point)?
This type of 'education' has no place with our youth. Shame!
Are these guys sure that "Captain Copyright" doesn't infringe on the "Captain Planet" copyright?
I concur with your post.
If you haven't foed me yet, what are you waiting for?
The propaganda is getting blatant. It least this one is not my tax dollars at work. Maybe there's a reason the almighty Canadian dollar coin is referred to as the loonie.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
...but this comic is lame. Look at this page and the previous one. Somebody gets an A just because they didn't use a bootleg version of the textbook? Give me a break.
There is also another page in the copyright comic that seems to confuse one issue (collaborate research and somebody trying to take all of the credit) with copyright law. The comic ended in a cliffhanger after a few pages, but I don't think this comic book is effective at all (not to mention lame), and the comic confuses issues, too.
Boing Boing helpfully points out (SFW) the similarity between the Captain Copyright logo and Slashdot regular goatse.cx (which I will not link).
I definitely may be wrong here (never been even close to Canada), but I believe the tax on blank media came out long before music downloads appeared in the radar. Sure, the tax is supposed to compensate for informal, personal copying, by providing some extra revenue to the artists (yeah, right, to the artists... mostly... somewhat... err...). However, I doubt the letter of the law mentions "downloading", which (in this "interesting" world we live in) may make quite a difference.
On their website, under "kids" I looked up the meanings of some words and phrases related to copyright. Guess what's missing from the list. I'll give you a hint, it starts with "Fair" and ends with "use"
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
My God! Second post, and by Godwin's Law this discussion is already over!
Of course this begs the question of will the record companies last until these kids grow up into nice, well-controlled, consumers.
And when did 'hitler' become a lower-case adjective?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
To be given equal time and consideration in class...
It's only critical in that its current form & implementation will ensure that the U.S. is unable to compete technologically & economically with other countries that have "looser" IP protection.
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
Think! It ain't illegal yet!
George Clinton
This is incorrect, the blank media levy was designed to compensate artists for people copying CDs and other recordings. The "Download Question" was not seriously considered at the time the levy was introduced and it is a matter of opinion if it applies to downloads.
Captain Copyright has heroically announced he's suing /. for copyright violation, after the vicious plagiarizers failed to read his site's asinine legal disclaimer and reproduced his valuable intellectual property. Additionally, poster jgaynor will also be sued for talking shit about captain copyright AND linking to his site in the same paragraph. Think that last sentance was hyperbole? Think again:
"permission to link is explicitly withheld from any website the contents of which may, in the opinion of the Access Copyright, be damaging or cause harm to the reputation of Access Copyright."
Holy Nutsack Cap'n Copyright!
More making fun of this ridiculous attempt at a valid legal statement here (disclaimer: not affiliated).
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.
Copyright jackasses are marketting their kindergarten-level understanding of intellectual property to actual kindergarteners.
Fuck you. My pony is better than your stupid pony.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
god only knows.
If the masses can keep you down, you're not the Ubermensch.
My favorite...
I am.... Captain Condom!
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
"Yes - Once your poem is in a fixed and tangible form, you have copyright in your poem. You do not have to register your creation with the Copyright Board to have copyright."
I'm sure kids will learn tons with these fun quizes and games.
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7
So who is going to pre-release a torrent of all the Captain Copyright Comics?
~ Mooga
Captain C/The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency,: Please do not sue me, but I copied and pasted the URL into the link above. If this is a violation, have the Swedish police sieze Slashdot's servers.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
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.
Don't Copy That Floppy :)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
copyrights, as well as a trademark, I think this is a bad thing.
...
Look, why won't Captain Copyright teach them about Fair Use, or the fact that colleges, schools, and universities are exempt from many copyright restrictions, or about public copyrights?
Now, having actually travelled across Canada on a Canada Council Grant, as a playwright and author, I know where some of the money paid by the library system goes. I'm not against copyrights, but let's tell the truth, not a distorted pro-corporate version
[fyi, if you try to look me up in the online database, my legal name is much much longer in Canada and has two hyphens]
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Not really. The tax is meant to cover copies made from legitimately obtained originals, as in when your friend loans you his CD or you borrow it from the library. In Canada it has been ruled that the blank media tax covers this and it's legal to copy the CD, whatever the RIAA or whomever may think. I don't think that the download case has been tested.
I agree with the previous poster who pointed out that there is no reason for this to appear in curriculum except private interests. Having them drive curriculum is dangerous and inappropriate.
Foo
He said "incorrect." As in, the CRIA thinks it's incorrect and would like you to as well.
Great. Now I've got this going through my head:
"RIAA!"
"MPAA!"
"Fear!"
"Uncertainty!"
"Doubt!"
"GO COPYRIGHT!"
"By your powers combined, I AM CAPTAIN COPYRIGHT!"
A few million similar votes should get the point across.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I am in awe that they have a 1 page PDF that takes up 5 megs, and despite it's title that would lead you to believe it contains Canadian Copyright laws, it actually doesn't reference any laws at all! If everyone downloads the PDF even once, we can Slashdot 'em pretty quickly! http://www.captaincopyright.ca/Teachers/Docs/LMCop yrightLaws.pdf
as a kid, the best sure-fire way to get me interested in doing something was to make an 'edutainment' comic book against it. I mean, jesus, this crap's down there with Johnny Turbo!
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Don't be ridiculous.
In 2005, the movie industry's total domestic revenue was a bit shy of $9 billion.
Intel Corporation's revenue in the same period was almost $39 billion.
So that's one company in one sector of the economy (albeit a big one) makes, all by itself, over four times what the entire movie industry makes.
While we're here, let's toss off some other revenue figures: IBM earned over $91 billion, Microsoft nearly $40 billion, General Motors almost two hundred billion dollars. GM lost more money last year than the movie industry earned in total (not counting expenses), and barely noticed.
The Copyright Cartel has done an excellent job as portraying itself as a critical industry, but don't be fooled. They are, at best, a miniscule piece of the American economy.
Software is somewhat of a different story, but they have their own ridiculousness (BSA), and you'll notice that of the companies cited, only one of them makes most of their money because of software copyrights.
I've not had the displeasure of sitting through this; they aim it at the younger grades (14, 15 years old). While the website for "Captain Copyright" emphasizes intellectual property rights, the in-class indoctrination mostly talks about not plagarizing, so at least at my school, I think fairly little harm is being done.
Even better, I have heard many of my peers mocking "Captain Copyright" and many seemed quite well informed about the law concerning fair dealing and had strong opinions on why the current copyright system is wrong or broken (at least according to them, who seem to want to justify the downloading of music.)
As to aiming copyright law indoctrination at young children, well, thats just plain wrong. Private industry should not attempt to sugar-coat something like this as an educational aid and offer free material to teachers; nor should those teachers fall for such easy tricks! In a world where from every angle comes marketing ploy for corporations, is there nothing left sacred? Even a child's education? We should teach our children to be critical of everything they receive, I hope this material is being portrayed in such a light at school, instead of being force-fed to the students.
Aside from that, the comic is rather lame -- it's so overdone, even a child should be able to detect the smell of propoganda...
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
"Captain Copyright! He's our hero! Going to bring all our money down to ZERO..."
~ Mooga
It has been deemed legal by their lawmakers and courts and since the laws and court decisions have not changed/been overturned to make them illegal, this is simply false.
screw these liars trying to pervert and poison the minds of impressionable youth! get it through your heads you greedy corps, it's not illegal in canada!, and the majority of the public doesn't consider it wrong where you've bought the laws making it illegal in other nations!
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
This is quality work compared to Christian cartoons.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Microsoft is the largest "soft" IP company (that is, they aren't known for making tangibles), and it's half the size of IBM. Microsoft is also roughly four times the size of the entire Hollywood movie industry. It's half the size of IBM, which in turn is: half the size of General Motors; a third the size of WalMart; a quarter the size of ExxonMobil.
The xxAA side of the entertainment industry could curl up and die tomorrow and the US economy would barely notice. The music and movie industries combined (roughly USD21b in 2004) don't equate to Sun and Apple together, never mind the dozens of individual companies that turn over many multiples of that figure.
"God, root, what is difference?" - Pitr, userfriendly
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.
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
with that in mind, I am not at all religeous, but still have strong moral values, obtained as follows:
- there is no god, natural rights or universal truths, only the physical world we live in (*)
- therefore the only thing that matters is what we think matters, and by we, I mean any sentient being. The only tangible good is that which makes beings happy, and perhaps the increase in knowledge although thats more based on the first, and the only bad is that which makes us unhappy/causes pain.
- from this I get a personal moral code based on individual freedom, not hurting others (unless they want it: sm etc) except in self defence, not killing others except as a last resort in self defence. Environmentalism comes into it because of the enjoyment people get from nature, but there is no such thing as un-natural in the end, unless we can step outside this universe to alter things against the laws of physics etc.
The purpose of the above is to show that having a "god" define our morality is not neccessary, and I would argue that in general, most religeous people dont follow your logic of
"I would tell my children, not to steal, rape, murder, lie, etc. because it hurts us and our fellow men, and show how it does. Then tell them how God says the same thing and that we got this knowledge from Him"
but rather "dont do bad things or you'll go to hell" or even worse "dont do anything the church (any church) tells you not to, whether you think its right or wrong, and if you do something wrong, you must confess or repent or whatever, usually involving donations to said church." How can doing "good" out of fear of your god be better than simply doing "good"? Why would any reasonably decent person have to fear a perfect god? why would a perfect god design us to be lustful and then punish us for doing as our "design" tells us to?. Faith in the bible is a bad thing in my opinion (as opposed to seeking wisdom in the words of jesus, which may be quite sensible, so long as you make your own mind up about which parts are wise), its just a book! its missing large portions of jesus' intended wisdom (look up the council of nicea, gospel of mary, gospel of judas, gnosticism, trinitarianism versus jesus as a created being, and the way the christian church has consistantly twisted symbols of other faiths and beliefs into devil worship symbols, and the centuries long killing and destruction of wise/free thinking women (and men outside the church)and so on) , and is twisted into a guilt producing document, and then used incorrectly to justify wars for money and oil. By promoting blind faith in god/bible/church, discouraging free thinking, people become sheeple, and follow the (supposedly religeous) leader, even when he is "evil".
Im rambling now. Basically, the bible is NOT jesus's complete and unmodified word, the catholic church and many other religeous groups have committed unbelievably "evil" acts according to my own personal code (and most other peoples), and the teachings of the church dont match up with what we can see jesus teaching: namely peace, love for fellow humans, forgiveness, not worshiping idols or money or gold, that sort of thing, not "X is sinful, Y is sinful, you are all sinners, confess (without righting the wrongs you have done) and give us money and you will be forgiven". From this we can see that blind faith in the church is stupid to say the least, and blind faith in the bible is also not a good thing (although I admit there is more wisdom in it than given by the church). your non catholic/protestant faith makes more sense to me than average christian "faith", and yet, you still say you dont question the bibl
watch "the money masters" on google video
Going through the "True or False", section myself, I was quite annoyed at the absolute assumption that all "software" was illegal to copy, and this being beaten into children's minds, amongst other falacies.
n t/task,view/id,1275/Itemid,85/nsub,/
Michael Geist (www.michaelgeist.ca) has a great commentary on his legal impressions of the whole thing:
http://michaelgeist.ca/component/option,com_conte
My religion is a work in progress, ever proceeding onward towards the truth. I believe that this process includes debate. Currently I believe something about Jesus dying on account of sin. This sort of makes me Christian, but all the other "Christians" don't believe in the whole debate thing. I also believe that the English translations are all corrupt. I've made some progress learning Greek and Hebrew. Conversely most of those calling themselves Christians consider themselves either too busy or too dumb, or too.. something, to bother learning to read the Bible in the languages the English versions were written from. I find the fact that they haven't been so empowered by their religion a pretty strong indicator that their's isn't the right one. This does not, however mean that no religion drawn in part on the basis of the Bible can't be true. However, if one were to depend on this basis alone, most "Christians" aren't the greatest witnesses, nor are they on much of any factor. I testify to the unsuitability of most "Christians" I have encountered as witnesses despite finding myself clinging to the message of the Bible, and seeking to become the witness that I have found others not to be. Oddly enough, such "Christians" have done nothing to counteract me.
It turns out kids notice that nobody says "I believe germs exist" or "I believe in gravity", but people do say "I believe in God". And so kids are much less sure about God existing. (Nobody gets punished for not believing in atoms.)
I only wish more parents would realize that about their "beliefs", and think about it.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
No where on the page does it say that the information on it is copyrighted.... You are now entering... The Twilight Zone.. *music ensues*
Captain Copyright
PADUCAH, KY, AP Wire -
Captain Copyright was arrested today but Federal Authorities on counterfeiting charges. In an ironic turn of events, the former crusader for corporate intellectual property rights was caught red-handed making counterfeit $20.00 bills with a laser printer, an iron, and a hair dryer.
When asked, friends were solemn about Copyright's descent into ruin. "He was such a nice guy until the RIAA stopped sending checks", notes once close friend Hayla Bullets. "Then, he just started drinking, grumbling a lot, and working in his machine shop.
Attorneys for Mr. Copyright could not be reached for comment.
So where's Fair Dealing on their list?
They're the same idea, although the parts that aren't quite the same would drive your lawyer nuts.
I was never told not to do something simply because it was against god's will. During my confirmation, I asked my preacher why the church had a problem with pornography (in context with the lesson) and he gave me a very logical answer. He didn't punish me for questioning the beliefs of the church, and he didn't answer with "Because god says so." He was trying to help me understand with hopes that I might be a more considerate, caring person when I entered adulthood.
And what hipocrasy do you speak of? I really didn't see much at my church. People interpreted what the bible said into logical advice. It gives perspective to issues people might otherwise struggle with.
I'm not sure what you're next point is supposed to mean.
Yes, their are leaders who use religion to brainwash their followers. There are also leaders who wrap themselves in the American flag and call anyone who disagrees with them unpatriotic. This doesn't mean anyone who considers themself to be patriotic agrees with those leaders. Just because some leaders abuse religion does not mean religion exists solely to control people.
The church I grew up in asks only for enough to keep the church going. The minister leads a very modest lifestyle, and while I saw political discussion at my church, I never saw anyone be told who to vote for.
And my church is not alone. I've known Christians, Jews and Muslims who take advice from their religion, and I mean logical advice, not manipulative propaganda. This can help lead to enlightment, and it's certainly not just saying "it's god's will."
The blatant stereotypes you're spreading are propogated because of what I believe is a loud minority. People like Fred Phelps lead others to believe that all Christians hate homosexuals and non-christians, but this is simply not the case. People like Osama Bin Laden make muslims appear to be bloodthirsty and anti-american. Again, this is generally not the case.
I think religion has a lot to offer the world, and I think it's a pity that it gets abused as often as it does. Personally, I don't go to church because I find it boring. I don't necessarily believe one faith is any more "correct" than another, but I do think religion can be a valuable asset to a person as they mature and grow, and as a result, it can help make the world a better place.
And to think, I read into the comments on this article because I was intrigued by the fact Canadians pay a tax on blank media to help compensate artists.