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Boy Scouts Introduce Merit Badge For Not Pirating

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the think-of-the-children dept.

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."

40 of 731 comments (clear)

  1. Scouts Honor.... by MECC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "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
    1. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

      I wouldn't worry. When they see the true extent of the "harm" caused by movie and TV piracy, they'll be heading to thepiratebay.org the moment they're near a computer.

      Scouts will be instructed in the basics of copyright law and learn how to identify five types of copyrighted works and three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.

      Cool, they'll be teaching them how to do it, too.

    2. Re:Scouts Honor.... by MattGWU · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, it's called the "You don't HAVE to do any merit badges you don't want to do." merit badge. The one requirement is you DON'T DO THE BADGE. It's a total gimmie, it's great. Nobody is holding a gun to some kids head to do the badge.

      My prediction: If it's easy, scouts will do the badge. You don't have to believe in it, you just have to do it, and damn if there's nothing better than an easy merit badge for that extra Eagle palm or whatever.

      --
      "These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined" --Homer re:
    3. Re:Scouts Honor.... by OS24Ever · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I wasn't in the boy scouts, but I was in the Explorer portion and that's how I got my private pilot license at 18.

      However, I feel that the scout organization has fallen so far from its original intended roots that it's nothing but a special interest shadow of its former self. It's very sad, because what once was an organization that helped kids learn about skills and camping and other simple yet vital tasks for a well rounded person have been hammered away into anti-gay, christian centric whored out to any group that wants type of thing.

      --

      As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.

    4. Re:Scouts Honor.... by smittyoneeach · · Score: 5, Informative
      However, I feel that the scout organization has fallen so far from its original intended roots
      The organization is no more than the sum of its members.
      The two or three scout parents I know are the kind of old fashioned, independent thinking, screw-the-post-modernists sort of people whom you'd want to have around in case of actual emergency. Can't speak for their sons, whom I have not met.
      Succumbing to the moral dry-rot so rampant in contemporary America is something we have to eschew individually.
      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    5. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      As has already been pointed out, this is NOT a Merit badge, it is a patch. Anyone can create a patch and offer them to anyone. It has nothing to do with whether the LA Boy Scouts want to earn the patch or not.

    6. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Mateo_LeFou · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So do you think there should be a merit badge about not-breaking every law, or just the most important ones (murder/rape/filesharing)?

      --
      My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
    7. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Greventls · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The quality of the Boy Scouts depends on where you are. I was in the Boy Scouts in the Westmoreland Fayette Council up until 4 years ago(I turned 18). I was openly atheist and recieved Eagle. I knew of a couple openly gay members who also made it through to Eagle. No one cared. Everyone was openly accepting of everyone. I think these are select councils or troops run by extremely socially conservative people.

    8. Re:Scouts Honor.... by 644bd346996 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your comment almost perfectly hits the mark. The only thing is that there are still a few troops that accomplish the original purpose. They are actively being repressed by the higher levels, but there are ways to deal with them. It is only through the efforts of a few extremely patient and caring men, mostly Eagles, that some troops can stick to BP's ideals. Unfortunately, these men are almost entirely absent from the organization above the troop level.

    9. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually, more likely to be like the kids in "Jesus Camp".

      You get to people young enough- you define who they are and what they feel is right and wrong.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    10. Re:Scouts Honor.... by swillden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      However, I feel that the scout organization has fallen so far from its original intended roots that it's nothing but a special interest shadow of its former self

      I was a boy scout, got my Eagle, have been a Cub Scout leader for the last few years and just recently became the Varsity Team Coach (Varsity is the 14-15 year-old boys), so I have a very good view of what Scouting actually is, as opposed to what it appears to be in the press.

      My take is that your perception is driven primarily by the special interests who have decided to attack scouting based on the two tenets of the program they don't like: homosexuality and religion. The scouting organizations actually have very little problem with either of those, and spend no time at all worrying about them. The prohibition on homosexual and pedophile leaders is very sensible, in my opinion, and the religious position is both open (must profess faith in *some* god) and not really enforced.

      Scouting is a great program that does a tremendous amount of good. It's precisely because it's such a valuable program that people who object to a couple of its tenets like to attack it. Don't take their attacks to mean that the program has changed.

      Anyway, I need to get back to planning next year's High Adventure camp. We're going to do a week-long, 100-mile rafting trip, most of it through the inaccessible canyons of the Colorado River above the Grand Canyon. I'm actually not so much planning it as putting together the framework for planning it, because the boys will do the real planning themselves.

      That's what scouting is about. Self-sufficiency, outdoor skills, teamwork, preparedness and the moral strength and integrity that are developed by doing hard things in a place that no one can cover for you. Oh, and fun. Lots of fun.

      Doesn't stop people from trying to use Scouting to score political points, but we try to ignore those people.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    11. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Score+Whore · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Without getting too political, Bush has lied under oath as well. He swore to uphold the constitution, but then ordered that people be held without access to courts, attorneys, etc. It went to the Supreme Court and was deemed that those orders violated the constitutional rights of the people being held and the Bush administration then said "ok, we'll stop doing that." But the thing is, just because Bush felt that it was constitutional doesn't mean that it's OK until a court says otherwise. It means that he was in violation of those constitutional rights all along. Bush should be impeached for breaking his oath.

    12. Re:Scouts Honor.... by robyannetta · · Score: 5, Interesting
      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.

      The scouts can drop by my microcinema studio and see how I release all my movies for FREE under a Creative Commons licence.

      Will they still get their badge?

      --
      - Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
    13. Re:Scouts Honor.... by monoqlith · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can't let this one go. Republican strategists tried for all 8 years of Clinton's presidency to nail him, they hated him so. The fact that the most credible charge they could come up with was lying about the Lewinsky affair(which was, I admit, stupid and unnecessary) is a testament to his relative integrity as a politician. He was under such heavy scrutiny from the Republican congress that they would have nailed him to the cross had he done something else even remotely as morally reprehensible. But none of preceding accusations levied against him held water, so they were left with the stupid Lewinsky tapes. This is not to excuse him, but to simply show that we once had a competent and relatively honest creature for our president.

      This all lies in contrast, of course, to our current president, whose resignation you apparently aren't calling for. He hasn't been held accountable for a single false, misleading, or outright deceptive public statement, of which there are plenty to cite. Some say that these lies have directly resulted in as many as half a million deaths. The only reason he has gotten away with them is because he has encountered virtually no resistance or scrutiny from Congress, and has skillful deceptive tactictians who, in a very real, cynical, Machiavellian sense, have artfully deceived the entire world, America included, into turning over as much power as possible to them and their cronies. Heavy accusations, I know. But unlike many of the Republican accusations against Clinton, these hold water.

      So what I suppose you are really complaining about is that Clinton got caught.

    14. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why do people lump homosexuals and pedophiles into the same group?

      As an adult hetrosexual male, do you have the desire to fondle a female child?

    15. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Firehed · · Score: 5, Informative

      As a (former) Scout, I can pretty much be sure that's the case. The badge requirements for the Computers merit badge look as if they were written in about 1992 last I checked (before electronic mail was shortened to email...), so I never even really considered to bother with it, though that site says they were revised in 2004. The article was incredibly thin on details, though I'd be interested to find out a bit more. Like what the thing is called. Something tells me that "Respecting Copyrights" isn't going to fit between Archery and Citizenship in the Nation, but then again I earned Dentistry and Space Exploration without the use of a dental pick or spacesuit.

      I'd just like to know how many people would have any interest in earning the thing. I'm thinking that, aside from those 'have to earn them all' types, there will be very, very few.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    16. Re:Scouts Honor.... by jZnat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One is a deliberate lie, and the other has set us back hundreds of years.

      Yeah, I completely see how perjury is far more severe than shitting on the US Constitution on a daily basis while in the federal government.

      --
      'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
    17. Re:Scouts Honor.... by sfjoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It seems rather obvious to me... because the potential sexual interest, particularly between the leader and the older boys, may interfere in a variety of ways, some mild, some severe.

      I think this statement illustrates the homophobia in our society in general and Scouts in particular. For example, few people would raise an eyebrow at a heterosexual male coaching a high school girl's basketball team. Yet somehow gay men are supposedly unable to control themselves when around young men. I am reminded one time when a gay friend of mine was presented with this issue by a homophobe who was deathly afraid he would get cruised if he was arounf gay men. My friend told him, "You know, none of you straight men are nearly as hot and irresistible as you think you are".

      --
      It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
    18. Re:Scouts Honor.... by Alchemar · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The boys scouts are "Jesus Camp":

      Can't be atheist http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=21204

      But lets get their belief on their "Duty to God" strait from their legal department
      http://www.bsalegal.org/faqs-195.asp

      I am all for letting everyone practice whatever their beliefs, but I am for letting them practicing equally. I have a personal beef with the schools system for only allowing religious organizations that they personally find acceptable. The local school even states in their policy that the only uniforms allowed are for ROTC and Boy Scouts. I am a humanist, I believe in Peace and Getting support from other human being instead of waiting for divine intervention (on a personal note, I think I have made an involentary exception to that for the upcomming elections), why can't I have an organization advertised in the school by allowing the children to wear a uniform?

    19. Re:Scouts Honor.... by ampmouse · · Score: 5, Funny
      Demonstrate your knowledge of the following:
      a. What is a copyright?
      Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information.
      b. Why do copyrights matter?
      To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
      c. Identify five types of copyrighted works (two may be your own). For each, give the author/creator and the date the work was copyrighted.
      1. GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE - Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
      2. libdvdcss - Copyright (C) 1999-2003 VideoLAN
      3. dvdbackup - Copyright (C) 2002 Olaf Beck
      4. Linux - Copyright (c) 1991 Linus Torvalds
      5. FreeBSD - Copyright (C) 1992-2006 The FreeBSD Project.
      d. Name three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.
      1. Go to the location where the copyrighted materials are stored, create a diversion, and run off with the copyrighted materials when no one is looking.
      2. Go to the owner of the copyrighted materials, make statments that might suggest his or her life is in danger if you do not have the copyrighted materals, then run off once the person gives them to you.
      3. Run in to the location where the copyrighted materials are used, screeming, and waving a bag over your head. Then, grab the copyrighted material and speed off in your car.
      Visit a video sharing network or peer to peer website and identify which materials are copyrighted and which aren't.
      I visited Jamendo. All the material is copyrighted.
      Ok, I am done. Now give me my Badge!
  2. Make sense by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Funny

    It makes sense since the Boy Scouts of America shares its initials with the Business Software Alliance

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  3. fair use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm guessing that fair use won't be part of the learning experience.

  4. Positively Orwellian ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Positively Orwellian ... by User+956 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      it doesn't sit well that the *AA's would be able to create a new merit badge and start indoctrinating them.

      The boy scouts of today are the politicians of the future. I can see where the RIAA is going with this.

      --
      The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  5. Un-badge. by Wellington+Grey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can I get a merit badge for not being a boy scout?

    -Grey

    --
    Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
  6. Merit _Patch_? by gauauu · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article is a little short on details. In Boy Scouts, the official things you work towards are Merit Badges, which are determined by the National Boy Scouts of America organization. The L.A. council/district/whatever doesn't, as far as I know, have the authority to create a new Merit Badge.

    What this article makes it sound like is that it's just a patch. Anybody and their uncle can make up a patch and make up their own requirements for it. We had patches made for activities only our troop would do. It sounds like this is just one of those, which if so, is no reason for anyone to get worked up about it. Sure, they're trying to brainwash Scouts, but there's nothing official or magical about it.

  7. How about they teach the scouts the real stuff by TheWoozle · · Score: 5, Funny

    How about they create a "Hollywood Accounting" Merit Badge? The scouts can pursue activities like Screwing People Out of Money and Establishing a Distribution Monopoly? Or the "Hollywood Agent" Merit Badge; they can learn about Being A Money-Grubbing, Bloodsucking Parasite?

    --
    Insisting on "correct" English is like saying that there is only one, definitive recipe for chili.
  8. I need one of those by computational+super · · Score: 5, Funny

    I want to get one of those merit badges for my son, but they cost too much. Does anybody know somewhere I can download one from?

    --
    Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
  9. It will when I teach it by swillden · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The article isn't clear if this is a regular BSA badge or just something cooked up by the local council, but if it's official, I'm going to sign up to be a merit badge counselor (I'm already a counselor for a dozen other merit badges).

    My version will focus on understanding all of copyright law, including (especially) Fair Use, the Doctrine of First Sale and the historical and constitutional basis of copyright law.. I think I'll substitute the "Make a Public Service Announcement" for a 200-word essay on Why the Digital Consumer's Bill of Rights is a good idea".

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  10. I concur and remember one patch... by Chagatai · · Score: 5, Interesting
    In the 1980s, I remember seeing in Boys Life magazine, the publication for Boy Scouts, that they were offering a "Donor Awareness" patch that would go on the chest pocket of the uniform, which is the spot usually reserved for various summer camp logos or other incidental merits. This patch required the scout having a conversation with his parents, and then sending in a form that said something along the lines of, "I have talked with Mommy and Daddy about who will get my kidneys when I die," plus shipping and handling. The badge looked pretty fruity overall, too. I imagine that this is what the "Anti-Piracy" patch would replace. Both merit badges and belt loops (remember those?) had sets of goals that had to be attained across several disciplines. This sounds like a one-step patch, and not a badge.

    --
    --Chag
  11. Boy Scout Billy goes to the studio by russotto · · Score: 5, Funny
    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. So Billy the Boy Scout takes the tour of the movie studio. While he's there, he sees several groups of people. First it's carpenters, putting together a set.

    "Are THOSE the people hurt by piracy?"

    "Oh, no, Billy, the carpenters are paid whether the film sells or not. They aren't the ones hurt by piracy".

    Later they see some writers, smoking cigarettes and muttering under their breath. "Are those the people hurt by piracy"

    "Oh, no, Billy. It's kind of complicated, but we actually don't pay them no matter how well the movie does. It's called 'accounting'"

    Then they pass a group of actors. "How about them, are THEY hurt by piracy?"

    "Oh, no, Billy, they get paid even if the movie flops, no matter how many people pirate it. They're supposed to get extra if it does well, but, well, there's that 'accounting' again"

    Billy then points to a director, sitting in a chair. "Is HE the one hurt by piracy"

    "Well, you're getting a little closer. He's a little better at 'accounting'. But piracy really doesn't hurt him all that much either"

    "Then who IS seriously hurt by piracy?"

    "Well, Billy, it's not normally a part of the tour, but just for you, we'll make a special trip."

    So Billy and the tour guide go to the studio offices. Up, up they go to the very top floor. The guide takes Billy to a large office with a door. "Billy, if you stand right here and look through the door, do you see the man there"

    "Yes"

    "That's one of the vice presidents of the studio. Thanks to piracy, he could only buy 3 Porsches last year instead of 5, and had to cut his cocaine habit in half. He can now only maintain one mistress, and she's in her LATE 20s. This studio alone has 30 executives, and they're all similarly suffering. And THAT'S who is hurt by piracy. NOW do you understand why you mustn't pirate movies?"

    "Loud and clear," said Billy, "Loud and clear". Billy then went home, told his parents he was quitting the Scouts, and asked if they could get a faster Internet connection

  12. Three ways by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    three ways copyrighted materials may be stolen.

    First there's your basic shoplifting.

    Second there's the classic breaking and entering.

    The third way is a little tricky. You have to forcibly board a boat and seize their copyrighted materials at swordpoint.

    Bonus points for recognising which one involves piracy.
  13. Re:I bet they got a better deal from the RIAA... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I once heard a gay activist emphatically state that almost all child molesters were heterosexual

    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.
  14. Ok this is just wrong by billsoxs · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is not standard BSA. FYI: BSA webpage is http://www.scouting.org./ You will not find this 'merit badge' there. In fact, it does not seem to fit into what BSA is trying to do.

    Also for the comment about a merit badge for 'learning how to think'. That is really the whole point of scouting - to give young men the skills they need for adulthood, including thinking.

    --
    This message was brought to you by "Lack of Sleep."
  15. Here is a list of Merit Badges by NutMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    This article is inaccurate. A Council (local office) of the BSA cannot create their own Merit Badge. This is some local program to educate the Scouts, but whatever award they earn is not "official", and would not help them earn a rank advancement or anything like that.

    Here is a list of the current Merit Badges, along with the requirements to earn each one.

    If you are so inclined, consider volunteering at your local Council as a "Merit Badge Counselor". If you have expertise in a particular area covered by a Merit Badge, you may be a counselor. A scout may not earn a badge unless a counselor verifies that the scout has completed all of the requirements. So if a scout cannot find a counselor for a particular badge, they have no way of earning it.

    For more information, see this training page, this guide and the application form.

  16. Re:ZONK EARNED THE "BUTT PIRATE" MERIT BADGE by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Olde Joke

    Q: Why was Michael Jackson kicked out of the Boy Scouts?

    A: He was going through a pack a day.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  17. Re:I PLEDGE.... by lurker5 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You needed to grow up in the former USSR to get the joke. The communist party often spread its message through organized youth groups such as pioneers & rewarded those kids with various awards for their political activities.

  18. Re:I'm an eagle scout by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Given the link in your sig, I'd say you're quite the expert on inanity.

  19. Re:ZONK EARNED THE "BUTT PIRATE" MERIT BADGE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Q: When does a Cub Scout become a Boy Scout?

    A: After he eats his first Brownie

  20. BSA has taken stance against piracy since 2005 by slightlytwisted · · Score: 5, Informative
    Consider the following questions which must be answered in order to earn your Computer merit badge, the requirements of which were updated in 2005:

    1. Why it is not permissible to accept a free copy of a copyrighted computer game or program from a friend
    2. The restrictions and limitations of downloading music from the Internet
    3. Why copyright laws exist
    http://www.usscouts.org/mb/mb036.html