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Boy Scouts Introduce Merit Badge For Not Pirating
The_Slaughter writes "The MPAA has recruited the boy scouts of America to do their dirty work. Scouts will now be able to learn a merit badge for anti-piracy related activities, including creating public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music. No word yet on if that includes helping the MPAA file lawsuits against 80-year-old grandmothers."
"Scouts also must choose one activity from a list that includes visiting a movie studio to see how many people can be harmed by film piracy. They also can create public service announcements urging others not to steal movies or music." And complete a lobotomy.
Do they also have merit badges for not thinking independently? Or one for having your IQ reduced to a single digit and being converted to a near-mindless automaton?
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
I'm guessing that fair use won't be part of the learning experience.
This reminds me of the children in 1984 who were trained to turn anyone who may have comitted a thought-crime.
I realize the Boy Scouts like to try to teach morals and the like, but it doesn't sit well that the *AA's would be able to create a new merit badge and start indoctrinating them.
Errie.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Merit badges are typically awarded for the completion of a task (hiking, camping, good works, &c), not for passively NOT doing something. Is there a merit badge for not smoking? How about for not cheating on exams?
These qualities are important, sure, but to dangle a badge as a carrot for not doing something wrong seems a like it's missing the point. Boy Scouts have a code and moral values (including those that would keep you from pirating software, smoking, and cheating) are implicit therein; further bribery, especially in the form of badges, seems unwarranted.
I left my wallet in El Sigundo!
Putting the fair use argument aside for a moment, who thinks it's a good idea to reward people for what they should be doing anyway. Should I expect to be rewarded because I didn't shoplift today or commit murder?
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
Its not stealing, since you are not depriving anyone of the thing.
The editors should be more careful with their phraseology.
It's straight from the article.
And more to the point, it's the exact doublespeak that the RIAA wants to drill into these kid's heads, using them to spread their propaganda, astroturf style.
You can't take the sky from me...
The patch shows a film reel, a music CD and the international copyright symbol, a "C" enclosed in a circle. The movie industry has developed the curriculum.
Shouldn't the boy scouts decide what their badges are? This is like McD's making the health curriculum for a school.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
I don't have any statistics one way or the other on that. Certainly, I often hear that these people are married and have children. Who is gay or not is up to them. If some people have an agenda whereby they want to define as many people as possible (or as few) as gay, that's their problem.
My point is, this is not something which is representative of the community any more than the actions of a few priests are representative or Catholics, or the actions of Foley are representative of congress, or that blacks are more likely to commit crimes, or that Hispanics are probably illegal immigrants who are in gangs, or that all Muslims are terrorists, or that all Americans are gun toting fundamentalist rednecks. None of the preceding are fair generalizations to any of those communities.
You can't go about painting an entire group of people with the same brush. But, this is slashdot, where it's more expedient to do so.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Needless to say, I don't agree with this reasoning. When I copy a music file, I gain music but the music company doesn't lose anything physical at all, despite their claims to being deprived of a potential sale. This is a purely hypothetical loss on their part, based on the assumption that if I couldn't get the music via mininova, that I'd have no choice but to buy it at full price, in which case they've lost the sticker price of the CD. I think this reasoning is flawed for several reasons:
(1): Some music I would buy for $5 or listen to if it's free, but I wouldn't pay $20 for the CD. In some instances, music that I would pirate I would not buy, even if I was unable to obtain the music through P2P networks. This means that in a situation like this, the music company is only "losing" the amount of money that I would actually pay for the music. The problem is that the RIAA is treating their product as though it's a commodity, like it's water... and we have no choice but to either buy it from them, steal it, or die of thirst.
(2): I could just as easily buy the CD from a friend or from a store that sells used CDs, in which case the RIAA has lost nothing.
In short, I believe that you are correct that being deprived of a sale constitutes stealing, especially in the cases you mentioned. What I'm disputing is that copyright infringement necessarily deprives anyone of a sale.
No.
.25 cent fee to any hair cut of that style for the rest of their lives and for 50 years after they die which would be paid to a big "hair cut production company" that had rights to that style of hair cut.
Jesus. This is such a broken record.
to use YOUR article for the example.
It's like watching the barber cut someone's hair, and cutting your own hair and he sues you because he's a magical barber like magicians and expects to get paid for the REST OF HIS LIFE and 50 YEARS after HE DIES for cutting hair in a PARTICULAR pattern and way with particular tools.
Not to mention that 99% of the stuff downloaded would never have been purchased at the desired price.
Not to mention that 80% of the stuff will probably never be listened too or only listened to once.
Not to mention that the 20% that is listened to will probably expand the market.
Not to mention that lots of people are as moral as they afford to be and when they make more money, they'll buy the products if they like them since they want the "real" thing.
Not to mention the products that you *can't BUY period* and can only get these ways.
Seriously- if barbers were like musicians, the fact that they wet the right side of your head, combed it back, then combed a row and clipped it with no.6 scissors would be equivalent to a "chord" and they could sue other barbers for cutting hair using the same sequence of "chords" and ever barber who invented a new haircut (like "the bob cut" or the "monica cut" or the "shag cut" could copyright it.
Then they could sue the hell out of anyone who cut hair that way (including people who cut their own hair) and they would add a
Why are musicians SO MUCH better than a barber who invites a new style of hair cut?
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Indeed, the MPAA-developed "curriculum" begins :
Intellectual dishonesty is no different than child abuse
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
I'm not an Eagle Scout; more by choice than anything. Years ago, I took a honest interest in scouting, but was very disappointed in the whole scheme. While some might assert that scouting isn't supposed to be a focus on survival skills, why else for all the survivalist training such as cooking without stove, camping with minimal supplies, hunting etc.? OK, so there are much better clubs to join that can better teach you how to eat dirt, weeds and to build a sheltor out of leaves and bark... but I was still rather annoyed at how little the Boy Scouts prepared a young adult for if they did get lost in the woods and had to get by a few days.
Looking back on those days, I realize that the Boy Scouts is heavily capitalist, despite any hopes a young scout might have for actually learning something for outdoor life. I remember the joy of seeing the Boy Scout emblem on my new portable stove, knife, compas etc. It never really dawned on me till after the fact, the Boy Scouts were actually far more mainstream than what people might expect. For a real life comparison, they are like the Air Force with air conditioned, reinforced tents in "war" rather than the Marines left to cover up with whatever they might, their jackets, a rock... anything but no air conditioner. I also came to realize everything in the Scouts was geared towards making me think like a malible consumer. A consumer which even if he isn't "sold" by advertisement, will still buy whatever is in the advertisement. A consumer who thinks that name brand is everything (does it have the Boy Scout Emblem!?). The dangers in this, is also an intiment involvment with the authorities behind the hype, and I assert no organization, no company should be above either the People or the Government. It is often in Capitalist Nations that people tend to bag on the government and forgive the Company without considering the fact that all their horrors were becuase of the Company rather than the Government; America doesn't go to war becuase of public support, but becuase of entire industry wide consensus (A lot of private/public companies making money off of our campaign in the Gulf and that money is not going to expand Middle Class. This is fact.).
Yeah, I learned how to pitch a tent, tie a few knots, and clean a wound. But, honestly, I could have figured that out along the way anyways... the depth of how much they teach in the Boy Scouts I believe is a hidden agenda as well. "You're too stupid to do much else, and trust Big Business and it's ability to make sure you won't ever have to decide which flower or weed you can eat. If you do end up in the woods, your car broke down and left you stranded becuase of Government regulations. In the meantime buy this handy Boy Scout Portable Stove, Boy Scout Portable Water Purification Kit and Boy Scout Compas to help tide you over till Big Business will rescue you."
The Boy Scouts is really a political/economic condition course for a particular ideology. The fact is, most capitalists embracing nations have Youth Programs all, in some way, dubbed as "scouts". Communists, tend to go for "pioneers". They all expose simple survival aspects which more give an impression of the phenomenal attraction to "Tips'n'Tricks", while underneath the stage tricks and simple wood carving classes... there's a political, philosophical, economic lesson vehemently pushed and ingrained in the childs mind.
Sure you get a letter from the President for making Eagle Scout. Those that are trying to push their message are often proud of their efforts; yes, it's worth something to put on your resume, there are benefits adding to real life incentive to encourage parents to toss their children into these programs.
Bottom line. I didn't learn all that much while in the Boy Scouts. If you went against the grain you were punished for it. For example, most of the kids in my district ran around with State Fair, Stainless Steal, Rambo "Survival Knives"... it seemed the ONLY non-Boy Scout peace of gear authorized for use du
Well you had me agreeing with you right up until the point you wrote this bullshit. You're a pretty sorry excuse for a human being if you really believe that. Did you ever think that those innocents you are wishing harm upon might not have agreed with the idea of the war either? Or do you just consider them "collateral damage" making you no better than the man you condemn?
You can only drink 30 or 40 glasses of beer a day, no matter how rich you are.
-- Colonel Adolphus Busch