"If you didn't pay for it, you've stolen it!"
Tim May
timcmay at got.net
Thu Oct 23 22:43:22 PDT 2003
Hollywood Preaches Anti-Piracy to Schools
Thu Oct 23, 3:09 PM ET
By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO - As part of its campaign to thwart online music and
movie piracy, Hollywood is now reaching into school classrooms with a
program that denounces file-sharing and offers prizes for students and
teachers who spread the word about Internet theft.
The Motion Picture Association of America paid $100,000 to deliver its
anti-piracy message to 900,000 students nationwide in grades 5-9 over
the next two years, according to Junior Achievement Inc., which is
implementing the program using volunteer teachers from the business
sector.
"What's the Diff?: A Guide to Digital Citizenship" launched last week
with a lesson plan that aims to keep kids away from Internet services
like Kazaa that let users trade digital songs and film clips: "If you
haven't paid for it, you've stolen it."
The program appears to be working, with students in dozens of middle
schools announcing that they will not enter their school libraries.
Said one student: "These libraries let lots of kids read the same
books...that's like Kazaa lets lots of people listen to songs!"
Another one added that they are joining a Christian Coalition program
to shut down parties that other students run. "They are, like, letting
kidz listen to music and stuff," said one banner-toting teenybopper.
TM: the last two paragraphs were of course added by me. But the point
is still valid, that much of Hollywood's claims about "illegal
listening" are not really any different from "reading without buying"
books and magazines in libraries. The more urgent issue is this crap
about corporations buying time in public schools. If I had a kid in a
school and it was proposed that Nike, Time-Warner, Coke, or Intel would
be buying teaching time, I'd tell them to stop it pretty fucking quick
or face the Mother of All Columbines.
--Tim May
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