Nonprofit Group Sends Filesharing Propaganda To Students

palegray.net writes "The National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit organization, has sent file-sharing propaganda to thousands of students. The supposedly 'educational' materials, presented in the form of a comic strip, are intended to frighten students with gross exaggerations of the legal consequences of sharing music online (lose your scholarship to college, go to jail for two years, and more). From the article: '"The Case of Internet Piracy," however, reads like the Recording Industry Association of America's public relations playbook: Download some songs, go to jail and lose your scholarship. Along the way, musicians will file onto the bread lines. "The purpose is basically to educate kids — middle school and high school-aged about how the justice system operates and about what really goes on in the courtroom as opposed to what you see on television," said Lorri Montgomery, the center's communications director.' I'm not encouraging anyone to break any laws, but this is ridiculous. What's truly discouraging is the fact that several judges appear to be in full support of this sort of 'education.' The propaganda material is available in PDF form, and it lists the judges and others involved in its creation. Wired's post has a summary of the story (which is good, since the story is awful), and Techdirt notes a couple of the legal inaccuracies.

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Re:Best coverage on p2pnet.net

[eonlabs]

Oh, but I have... Not one of them was devoid of dry fuels.

My favorite are the pine barrens on the East coast, which, are short, develop a VERY thick underbrush, burn every 30 years, or every 5 in the case of the dwarf pines. You'll see a lot of tall grasses, which dries well and burns easily.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_barrens

Dry needles and leaves can provide plenty of fuel for a good burn. Why is the bark of a Redwood tree fire resistant? If they weren't prepared for natural forest fires, I don't expect they would be able to live NEARLY as long as they do. And their forest typically DOES have underbrush, although not nearly as much as the shorter forests.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Del_Norte_Titan_230.jpg

The most significant thing is the fact some plants require a burn in order to reproduce.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Pine
"It is fire-adapted to stand-replacing fires, with the cones remaining closed for many years, until a natural forest fire kills the mature trees and opens the cones. These then reseed the burnt ground."

And, while yes, there are forests that Don't have fires like this, ALL of the ones I've really been through do. Even the VERY mature ones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_fire