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!"

Because there's nothing better they can be doing

[C0R1D4N]

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.

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:It's in the National Interest

[Anonymous Coward]

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.