We've got DRM in our games, the RIAA continues to sue small-fry, individual file sharers, the consumer-unfriendly Digital Millenium Copyright Act is the law of the land, the IP industry is trying to push DMCA-like legislation in Canada, and the secret ACTA copyright negotiations are ongoing.
But the copyright lobby would like to be in your kid's school, too.
The Copyright Alliance, a lobbying group which includes game publishers trade association the Entertainment Software Association among its members, has just launched the Copyright Alliance Education Foundation, which it bills as a non-profit, charitable organization:
Its mission as of now is K-12 schools, and... we are already working with many schools across the country... The focus of our curricula is student empowerment; communicating how the U.S. Constitution gives each and every one of us rights and ownership over our creations.
Taking classroom time away from the 3R's is not a new idea for those in the IP protection business, however. As GamePolitics reported in 2007, the ESA's top enforcement exec, Ric Hirsch, told attendees at an anti-piracy conference:
In the 15- to 24-year-old (range), reaching that demographic with morality-based messages is an impossible proposition... which is why we have really focused our efforts on elementary school children. At those ages, children are open to receiving messages, guidelines, rules of the road, if you will, with respect to intellectual property.
Comments
Re: Copyright Lobby Wants Access to K-12 Schools
They'd have to be the CLFC for that -- the Campaign for a Lobbyist Free Childhood. :P
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The Mammon Philosophy
Fangamer
Re: Copyright Lobby Wants Access to K-12 Schools
LOL
Seriously though, I consider this an advert, it's deliberately designed to promote a particular viewpoint, therefore limiting freedom of the child to make up their own minds regarding something.
The only stuff that should be promoted in Classrooms in this manner are things like Road Safety, Stranger awareness etc, basically, stuff that will protect the childs' interests, not the industries'.
Regardless of people's opinion on that viewpoint, it's an opinion they themselves came to, corporations want to target younger children because that way they believe they can snuff out dissent before it happens.
It's a whole crock of sh*t anyway, because the minute kids turn 12-13, they want to rebel against the machine anyway, so they'll simply ignore everything they've been taught, and, in fact, deliberately do the opposite, so in many ways, such a technique stands a fair chance of exploding in their faces, but that doesn't really justify it happening in the first place.
Re: Copyright Lobby Wants Access to K-12 Schools
This just screams wrong.
I hate this course of action, for anyone who tries it. Be it commies, global-warmists, vegans, or these new assholes; children should not be taught what to think, but how to think.
Re: Copyright Lobby Wants Access to K-12 Schools
We should take George Carlin's advice and teach kids to question what they read and question authority.
Or at the very least tell them that people with an agenda are willing to lie or distort the truth to help their case. No exceptions.
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.